By Jonathan Make, 11.24.09
Excerpted from Communications Daily
 
The FCC is continuing to hold off deciding on three petitions against AT&T and Comcast over the companies' digital carriage of public, education and government (PEG) channels, several commission and industry officials said. The petitions from December and January by towns and municipal groups ask the commission to require pay-TV providers to treat PEG channels the same as others. The petitions are among the media items that could get FCC approval this or next quarter, and in the past some officials there have sought action, but the regulator for now is taking a wait-and-see approach, said commission officials and communications lawyers.
 
But legislators and communities continue to ask the commission to act now (CD Nov 23 p10). Friday, Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill., asked FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to "grant the PEG Petitions as soon as possible." If that doesn't happen, "other operators might also adopt approaches that marginalize or effectively eliminate PEG access," wrote the House Commerce Committee member. Other cable operators may also face similar issues as AT&T and Comcast in their treatment of the channels, a commission official said...
 
"We think that the matter is ripe for commission decision,"  said Spiegel & McDiarmid attorney James Horwood, representing the Alliance.  "The longer we go, the more severe the problem becomes..."