Cross-Ownership Rules

The Commission has voted to adopt the tentative conclusion regarding the Commission's legal authority to grant waivers to telephone companies allowing them to provide video programming directly to subscribers in their telephone service areas. For ``good cause'' the Commission may waive Section 613(b) of the Communications Act, the cable-telco cross-ownership restriction, where a waiver is ``justified by the particular circumstances.'' In response to the decisions of the Fourth and Ninth Circuits which found Section 613(b) unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds, the Commission concluded that under Section 613(b)(4), the waiver provision, it has the legal authority to grant waivers to allow telephone companies to provide video programming in their telephone service areas on video dialtone networks. The Commission further concluded that waiving the restriction in that manner is fully consistent with the language of the statute and Section 613(b)'s underlying policy, and obviates the constitutional infirmities identified by the court of appeals. This order is intended to provide guidance to the public regarding the Commission's legal authority to grant waivers of the cable-telco cross-ownership rule to telephone companies seeking to provide video programming directly to subscribers in their telephone service areas.