F.C.C. Chief Seeks Votes to Tighten Cable Rules

F.C.C. Chief Seeks Votes to Tighten Cable Rules

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 — The head of the Federal Communications Commission is struggling to find enough support from a majority of the agency’s commissioners to regulate cable television companies more tightly.

The five-member commission is set to vote on Tuesday on a report, proposed by Kevin J. Martin, the agency’s chairman, that would give the commission expanded powers over the cable industry after making a formal finding that it had grown too big.

“The general suspicion is that Adelstein is more friendly to cable companies than he will admit, and the only question is whether he will find an excuse to not vote the issue,” said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project, an advocacy organization that has been a leader in the effort to promote the 70/70 finding. “He originally seemed sympathetic to what we were saying. The question now is whether he will try to hide behind process and the doubts that have been raised by industry.”The industry’s largest trade group, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, maintains that although more than cable is now available to more than 70 percent of homes, far fewer than 70 percent of those homes are actual subscribers.

“We don’t even regard it as a close call,” said Kyle McSlarrow, president and chief executive of the association. He said that the cable companies were concerned that a finding of the sort advanced by Mr. Martin could lead to an “incredibly expanded interpretation” of the law by the commission to justify sweeping regulations, when in fact the law does not actually give the agency such authority.

Get rid of the F.C.C., that is all.