Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 7, 1990 TAG: 9005050294
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
"I don't see it as any sort of a serious threat," Turner told a New York Television Academy luncheon.
Turner asserted the real push for cable regulation is coming from network broadcasters and phone companies, with the former "trying to restrain cable any way they possibly can."
Virtually all cities with cable have had essentially no regulation of cable systems since 1985 because a federal law that generally freed local cable systems of rate regulation.
But with some critics charging that cable has become an unregulated monopoly, there now are proposals before Congress to regulate the industry. According to A.C. Nielsen Co. estimates, cable serves more than 57 percent of the nation's 92.1 million homes with television.
The National Cable Television Association, on whose board Turner serves, said it will cooperate to work out an acceptable regulation bill.
But in Senate testimony in March, NCTA president James P. Mooney warned that reregulation of cable rates would "choke off" funds for programming and they would "prefer" the cable industry remain unregulation.
Turner, whose Turner Broadcasting System owns four cable networks, including Cable News Network, said he spent considerable time talking with key members of House and Senate subcommittees about regulation proposals.
"So far, they haven't come up with anything that they think they can get through at the current time," he said. "But I don't think it will slow cable up if they do. I don't think it will be that bad if they do.
"So I'm not too worried about it. . . . I don't see it as any sort of a serious threat."
Turner also asserted the ratings of networks and broadcast stations will decline and those of cable will climb. He predicted that cable would be in 70 percent of the nation's households 2 1/2 years from now.
by CNB