Hawaii, Massachusetts Continue Arguments Against Charter Petition

Slipping DirecTV Now subscriber numbers mean it has a penetration level well below the 15 percent needed to constitute effective competition, Hawaii said in an FCC docket 18-283 posting Monday. Online video distributors, regardless of whether affiliated with LECs, don't have the inherent market power telcos do in communities served by that facilities-based infrastructure, it said, so the FCC should make clear Congress intends for its statutory LEC test to apply just to facilities-based video programming offerings of LECs and deny Charter Communications' petition for determination of effective competition. The Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable, filing in the docket, recapped meetings with aides to all five commissioners at which it said it's not arguing that streaming services can't provide competition to cable, but that DirecTV Now doesn't pass the LEC test for effective competition. It said granting Charter's petition would "provide the elemental framework necessary" to claim all streaming video providers are MVPDs, and broadcasters could put retransmission consent obligations on streaming services and let streamers put nondiscriminatory program access requirements on cable operators. Massachusetts also said the FCC should focus more on the basic cable rates regulation Further NPRM proceeding as a route for easing cable regulatory burdens but without all the regulatory uncertainty. The states have argued against Charter's petition (see 1810260026).