Reason: Out of a universe of 60 million?
Lamb: Yeah. At one point or another, they either lost that subscriber entirely or got cut back on C-SPAN or cut back on C-SPAN2 or they lost C-SPAN2.
No one else had this kind of hit. No one was hurt as badly as we were. To this day we're hurt. We've spent thousands of dollars as a part of the court cases involved in this. I'm constantly bewildered about what is going on here.
Must-carry is the greatest travesty to ever happen to this network. I'm having intellectual problems with it. I'm not a lawyer, and I don't consider myself to be that smart, but I read the First Amendment and then I read the must-carry legislation and it doesn't go together.
In almost every case that we've been bumped [from a local cable system because of must-carry] it's been because of some shopping channel being brought in from 45 miles away, or the fifth public television station brought in from out of state, and I don't understand it. Essentially, the law is saying that the programs these channels show have a right to be carried while C-SPAN does not. I'm at a loss to understand how the First Amendment and the must-carry regulation, or for that matter retransmission consent, go together.
And when we [go to Congress] saying what we say, people look at me, pat me on the head and say, "Nice little boy--we're really proud of what you're doing." But we never have asked for a special favor. We've said, "Just treat us as a first-class citizen in this mix." And [this message] is not heard.
Reason: What does C-SPAN charge a local cable system?
Lamb: It's a per subscriber, per month figure of 6 cents. They get everything we have for one price.
Reason: Even C-SPAN3?
Lamb: Three's available to the local Washington cable systems. It's not on satellite yet. And we're waiting, again--and it's been an incredible wait--for the infrastructure to be opened up, because government can't make up its mind [on a telecommunications bill]. The rate regulation of 1992 and the restrictions put on to keep cable from getting into the telephone business, and vice versa, has kept a cap on this explosion that will occur.
Reason: How has that happened?
Lamb: Business types look at the world and say, "I'm not going to venture into a field that's unknown until I'm told that the government isn't going to put the clamps on me again." The greatest thing about business is that when you can create and you have an unlimited field and no one's there to stop you--and you can create, and create, and create, and sell, and sell, and sell--all kinds of new things happen. Now the lid's on.
Reason: Because of the rate controls?
Lamb: Because of the rate controls, and because all through the years Congress has said, "We'll take care of this broadcaster group, and this cable group, and this telephone group, and we'll keep you all happy in your little monopolies, and we won't let you compete in each other's world, and everybody's going to be happy."
What also has been at work here is that members of Congress see an opportunity out of each one of these industries to generate PAC money. The industries are only playing the game according to the rules. They're going to give the maximum amount of money and the politicians are sitting there saying, "We need the maximum amount of money to run our campaigns." Telecommunications has been this humongous tin cup for politicians for a lot of years, and it's gotten to the point where you've got to watch very carefully to see why a new piece of legislation is dropped in the hopper because it could do nothing more or less than generate tremendous amounts of money into the political coffers of both parties. [The industries] must contribute to the campaigns of people, not just from their districts, but from outside because these committees have so much power.
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