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FCC Investigating Pricing Of Digital Cable

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By RICHARD MULLINS

rmullins@tampatrib.com

Published: November 5, 2008

The Federal Communications Commission has opened probes into the digital cable pricing policies of major cable operators, including Bright House Networks and Verizon Communications.

At issue is the companies' practice of moving analog TV channels into digital tiers to free up bandwidth for other uses, such as high-definition channels. In some cases, analog customers must rent a digital set-top box from the operator or buy the digital TV plan to watch those channels.

Verizon officials say the topic should "be a nonissue" for them because they offer free digital adapters to the few thousand analog customers remaining on their system. Bright House officials said they had no comment on the FCC actions, and declined to describe how they charge for converter boxes.

The issue is separate from the conversion of over-the-air TV signals from analog to digital, which is scheduled to happen in February. But with that transition in progress, many cable companies have taken the opportunity to try and migrate customers to digital tiers of service.

Besides Bright House and Verizon, the FCC is probing Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Cablevision Systems Corp., Suddenlink Communications, Bend Cable Communications, GCI Co., Harron Entertainment and RCN Corp., according to a letter the agency sent pay-TV operators on Oct. 30.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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