Big Brother wants some IPTV  $$$$ !!! FCC says

Big Brother wants some IPTV  $$$$ !!!

FCC says IPTV providers should pay regulatory fees

Commission decides to level playing field between cable and telco TV
August 13, 2013 | By Jim Barthold

The FCC has reached out and touched up IPTV providers for regulatory fees in its 2013 fee schedule adopted this week, even going so far as to add IPTV as a special category along with cable in the schedule.

In a 54-page report the federal agency noted that it's been considering attaching fees to IPTV since 2008 and that the most recent spate of comments it received indicated that "digital television delivered through a high-speed Internet connection, instead of by the traditional cable method," should be included in future fee schedules.

"We observed that by assessing regulatory fees on cable television systems, but not on IPTV, we may place cable providers at a competitive disadvantage," the Commission's report stated. After listening to comments, the Commission determined that "IPTV providers should be subject to the same regulatory fees as cable providers" because, among other things, IPTV providers benefit from Media Bureau regulation.

"We are not stating that IPTV providers are cable television providers," the report said.

While IPTV finally got caught in the regulatory net, the FCC declined to haul in satellite TV, noting that it would revisit that issue in the future.

As might be expected, the new regulations drew a mixed reaction from the American Cable Association.

ACA President-CEO Matt Polka, in a statement, hailed the IPTV inclusion as a way to "avoid distortions in the marketplace that can occur when some similar situated competitors must pay regulatory fees while others can avoid them."

On the other hand, Polka encouraged the Commission to take the next step and "require Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) providers, including Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH) and DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV), to pay regulatory fees on a per-subscriber basis as cable operators must."

The FCC, Polka added, "has ample authority to assess regulatory fees on DBS providers based on their Media Bureau activities and should craft a regulatory fee structure that results in all providers of multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) services paying their fair share of the FCC's costs."

FierceIPTV http://www.fierceiptv.com/story/fcc-says-iptv...z2cBV4JGXl

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US IPTV providers must pay regulatory fees

By Editor IPTV News August 16th, 2013

American IPTV providers will need to pay the same regulatory fees as cable companies from 2014, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) confirmed this week.

The FCC said it had been persuaded by the argument that digital television delivered via high-speed internet should pay fees, in an attempt to create a level playing field between operators.

“By assessing regulatory fees on cable television systems, but not on IPTV, we may place cable providers at a competitive disadvantage,” the FCC said. IPTV providers should be subject to the same regulatory fees as cable providers because, among other things, IPTV providers benefited from regulation by the Media Bureau.

Matthew M. Polka, president and CEO of the American Cable Association – which represents 850 small-to-medium cable operators – welcomed the move. “ACA applauds the FCC for deciding to collect regulatory fees on providers of internet protocol television (IPTV) in the same manner as cable operators must pay them,” he said. “Including IPTV service providers in the fee base will avoid distortions in the marketplace that can occur when some similarly situated competitors must pay regulatory fees while others can avoid them.”

The FCC said it had decided not to charge fees to satellite providers at this time, though the ACA said the FCC should start charging those operators fees as well. “Doing so would result in regulatory parity and take into account the sizeable burden that DBS providers place on Media Bureau staff resources.”

“Major reform of the FCC’s regulatory fee program is long overdue, and won’t be complete until DBS pays its fair share for the work of the Media Bureau,” Mr Polka added.

The FCC added IPTV as a special category alongside cable in its 2013 fee schedule, released this week.

http://www.iptv-news.com/2013/08/us-iptv-prov...tory-fees/

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