A la Carte

ACA took large media companies to task in its a la carte filing with the FCC Tues, complaining a few programmers require carriage of dozens of affiliated channels and charge discriminatory wholesale rates to smaller companies. ACA represents 1100 small operators. It claims nearly all the Top 50 channels require small ops to distribute the channels to all basic or expanded basic customers. Nets like independently owned Outdoor Channel suffer because ops lack the channel space to launch them, it argues. ACA stresses it’s not in favor of mandated a la carte; instead, it wants more flexibility for small ops to tailor channel offerings. It wants the elimination of "price discrimination" against smaller ops. Meanwhile, 8 small operators (6 from the ACA) filed comments Tues expressing fear of government-mandated a la carte. They wrote it "strongly opposes any govt intrusion into editorial and business decisions about packaging and pricing of cable programming." Bresnan, Bend Cable, Eagle Comm, First Commonwealth, Midcontinent, Millennium Digital, Sjoberg and Susquehanna made the filing; only Bresnan and Susquehanna are not ACA members.