STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. MCDOWELL Re: Annual Assessment of the Status of Competition in the Market for the Delivery of Video Programming, Notice of Inquiry, MB Docket No. 07-269 I support this Notice, which posits a comprehensive set of questions about the state of competition in the market for the delivery of video programming. As our prior Video Competition Reports have demonstrated, today’s video marketplace is dynamic and more competitive than ever. Virtually every American enjoys more options for the delivery of video programming and more choices in programming content and services than ever before. The once dominant cable industry’s share of multichannel video customers has declined steadily over the past 15 years, while the two DBS companies continue to grow and the incumbent telephone companies have begun to compete for video customers in earnest. Moreover, the rapid decline in vertical integration of cable operators and program networks and the increase in the number of channels available on MVPDs provide further evidence of robust competition. I look forward our study of the data, analyses and comments sought by the Notice to inform our policy determinations in the media sector. The Commission should examine the results carefully and with an objective view aimed toward developing the policies appropriate to the competitive market environment. I hope that our experience with this year’s 2006 Video Competition Report, with its radical departure in methodology from previous reports, will be an anomaly in Commission history.