NCTA Asks FCC to Keep Docket Open for Cable Companies
Cable ops want to text and app-notify subscribers.
WASHINGTON, July 14, 2025 – A cable industry trade association wants cable operators to be able to contact subscribers using text messages and mobile apps in addition to email. But that's going to need the help of the Federal Communications Commission.
The NCTA – The Internet & Television Association has asked the FCC to preserve a rule that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had targeted for deletion.
In a filing Wednesday, NCTA said cable operators wanted to contact subscribers with a range of modern communications tools, not just email. But to use apps and texting will require a tweak to agency rules to ensure operator authorization to serve customers who have not opted out.
“These revisions would help ensure that the [FCC’s] regulations do not freeze cable operators’ communications with subscribers in time. Prescriptive rules can quickly become out of date as technology evolves,” the filing, written by NCTA lawyers Mary Beth Murphy and Radhika Bhat, said. “Indeed, the current rule’s limitation to email demonstrates this. Cable operators have a strong interest in reaching their subscribers to provide them with needed information.”
A 2018 ruling by the FCC allowed cable operators to expand notices electronically, allowing email to be the main form of communication.
Even then, the NCTA made a comment about the restrictive nature of the ruling, saying, “The [FCC] should allow operators to use alternative methods of electronic communication that can be equally if not more effective in reaching individual customers than paper and e-mail notices.”
The NCTA said that keeping the docket open will help these companies “communicate with their subscribers in ways that are timely, effective, and convenient.”
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