WASHINGTON -- Faced with an unprecedented wave of industry mergers that could forever alter how Americans get their phone, cable TV and Internet services, the nation's top communications regulator says he has to resist being bulldozed by those who want the deals approved quickly.
"There's a lot of pressure on our agency to just rubber-stamp them all," Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We can't do that because these mergers are fundamentally restructuring the telecommunications industry."In some cases, the FCC chief gives companies considering combining a more concise warning: "Don't even think about it."
Kennard, in a wide-ranging discussion with the AP on Thursday, also said he has asked his staff to examine a rule that forbids companies from owning two or more networks in certain combinations. If the FCC decides to relax that limit, it could ease the way for the proposed merger between media titans CBS and Viacom -- which also owns a half-interest in the UPN network.
The FCC chief said it's important to look at whether such restrictions are relevant in today's market, where broadcasters are competing with services such as the Internet.
Broadcasters "feel that they're being assaulted by all these new technologies," Kennard said. "The business has been so carefully protected by government. Now, some of the bets are off and everyone's nervous."
The FCC also is looking at combinations between two leading long-distance companies, MCI and Sprint; cable companies AT&T and MediaOne; and local phone companies Bell Atlantic and GTE, among others.
Laying out a vision for the future, Kennard said he wants to spread wireless technology across the country quickly to revolutionize Americans' daily life, from the Internet and movies to cars and kitchen appliances. Internet delivery by means of wireless devices such as cellular phones or hand-held computers opens new doors for consumers, he said.
"It's going to further democratize the Internet. It's going to make it available to people who can't afford a $5,000 PC in their home," Kennard said.
To promote that goal, the FCC has set a spring date to auction valuable portions of the airwaves that many companies see as "prime real estate" for delivering wireless Internet service to people on the road and in their homes.
Kennard also predicted a sea change in the way Americans watch television, a revolution that will be pushed along as the industry makes its transition from analog to digital. Digital TV allows broadcasters to squeeze more video and data into existing channel space. They could use it to provide sharper pictures or offer additional TV channels for sports or movies, or stock quotes and other data transmitted to home computers.
But so far, the road to digital TV has been rocky, because of wrangling over standards to make the new digital systems compatible with cable TV. That's important because most Americans get their TV via cable. Kennard has set an April 1 deadline for the industry to arrive at a solution or the FCC will intervene.
Next Thursday, Kennard said, he is going to ask the other commissioners to consider digital compatibility rules that have been drafted to ensure that there will be a standard in place by April.
Kennard predicted consumers will increasingly use devices such as personal video recorders that enable them to sort and arrange TV programs to their liking.
"Today, television is sort of a passive exercise," Kennard said. "That's going to be seen as very much of an anachronism in the future."
In turn, the current structure of time slots and scheduled programming will crumble, as people can watch their selected shows on demand.
"The whole economic model of the network is going to change pretty dramatically," Kennard said, "because it's not going to be a world in which networks compete to get a certain audience level at a certain period of time. It's going to be about delivering a certain quality of demographics 24 hours a day."
Kennard, the agency's first black chairman, also added his to the voices of minority leaders who have complained about the lack of diversity in network TV programming.
"You turn on prime-time television, and it's like you're living in another country," said Kennard. "It just doesn't reflect who we are. That's a problem."