The Federal Communications Commission granted Time Warner Cable Inc.’s petition to order AT&T Inc. to reveal subscriber numbers in certain San Antonio communities in order to allow Time Warner Cable to demonstrate it is subject to effective competition in the market. The FCC Media Bureau overruled AT&T’s confidentiality objections in ruling that Time Warner needed the information to show that more than 15 percent of the households in the market subscribe to competing multichannel video program distributors, or MVPDs.
Two competitive tests are available to dominate cable providers. Time Warner seeks to show that it meets the “competitive provider” test. In order to meet the requirements of that means of showing effective competition, Time Warner needs AT&T subscriber numbers for seven areas where direct broadcast satellite providers do not reach the 15 percent threshold. The company is also seeking subscriber information from DirecTV Inc. and Dish Network Corp. AT&T had argued that its customer information needed to be kept confidential given the competitive San Antonio market.
The company also claimed that Time Warner could instead demonstrate that it was subject to “local exchange carrier” effective competition, which bypasses the need for AT&T’s subscriber numbers. The FCC stated that AT&T couldn’t badger Time Warner into claiming LEC effective competition because each company was entitled to choose which form of effective competition it asserted and that AT&T could still be required to turn over confidential information even if Time Warner decided to claim LEC effective competition.