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 JOINT  STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONERS  MICHAEL  J.  COPPS  AND  JONATHAN  S.  ADELSTEIN 
 Re:  Implementation  of  Section  11  of  the  Cable  Television  Consumer  Protection  and  Competition  Act  of  1992,  et  al.,  Second  Further  Notice  of  Proposed  Rulemaking,  CS 
 Docket  No.  98-  82  et  al. 
 It  is  with  some  disappointment  that  we  vote  to  approve  today’s  Second  Further  Notice  of  Proposed  Rulemaking.  After  the  D.  C.  Circuit  reversed  our  prior  rules,  the  Commission  sought 
 public  comment,  in  September  2001,  on  how  to  fashion  new  standards,  consistent  with  the  court’s  opinion.  Now,  almost  four  years  later,  we  still  do  not  resolve  these  issues  and  provide  much-needed 
 certainty,  but  instead  seek  another  round  of  comments.  The  record  we  adduced  before,  limited  though  it  was,  has  grown  stale,  and  needs  to  be  refreshed  and  updated. 


 Once  the  new  record  is  compiled,  we  hope  the  Commission  will  prioritize  this  proceeding  and  move  to  a  decision.  Toward  that  end,  we’re  pleased  that  today’s  item,  even  if  it  does  not  establish 
 new  numerical  limits,  does  resolve  some  issues.  Most  importantly,  the  item  puts  to  rest  the  notion  that  the  Commission  could  simply  decide  that  horizontal  and  vertical  limits  of  some  kind 
 aren’t  necessary.  The  item  reiterates  the  clear  language  of  the  law:  the  Commission  “shall  .  .  .  prescribe  rules  and  regulations  establishing  reasonable  limits”  for  a  cable  operator’s  subscriber 
 reach,  as  well  as  the  number  of  its  own  channels  it  can  run  on  its  system.  Against  this  backdrop,  we  hope  cable  operators  and  other  parties  do  not  argue  that  there  should  be  no  numerical  limits, 
 but  instead  provide  appropriate  and  necessary  information  to  help  us  implement  the  clear  command  of  the  statute.  Given  that  the  mandate  dates  back  not  to  the  now  almost  ten-  year-  old 
 Telecommunications  Act  of  1996,  but  even  worse,  the  Cable  Television  Consumer  Protection  and  Competition  Act  of  1992,  we  need  to  work  efficiently  and  productively  to  establish  numerical 
 limits  which  satisfy  the  statutory  purposes  expressed  in  section  613(  f)(  2)  of  the  Act  as  soon  as  possible. 
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