The story of cable video's demise is overstated, but even given the shift to over-the-top platforms, cable companies equally benefit from that as the country's leading broadband providers.

That was according to a bearded Michael Powell, president of NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, on this week's episode of C-SPAN's Communicators series.

Powell said he had been hearing the cord-cutting narrative for over a decade and cable companies added subs during the pandemic, continue to have sound financial performance, and said that most Wall Street analysts are bullish on the industry's future.

Also Read: NCTA's Powell: Cable Scores with OTT As Well As Traditional Video

On the issue of infrastructure funding, the Biden Administration's planned billions of dollars in broadband buildout subsidies rely heavily on funding municipal broadband, something Powell said may be problematic.

He said it was not accurate to say that broadband operators don't think there are any areas where municipal broadband or local coops aren't part of the solution. But he said the government "would be wise to look carefully at the history of municipal networks and their success rates" given that Powell said the vast majority of those over the last decade have failed. That has been one of the arguments by cable operators for why they backed state legislation limiting muni broadband nets.

He pointed to a Bristol, Virginia, muni fiber network that failed to the tune of $130 million and Provo, Utah, with a failed network that was sold to Google for a dollar but retained $40 million in debt. 

He said that often the projects are built, but then it is the challenging ongoing operational costs that "often make it a poor choice" for deploying broadband.

He said to prioritize such buildouts--as the Biden infrastructure plan appears to do--"fails to diagnose the problem accurately," he said. He said do muni when it makes sense, but added that the majority of successful buildouts are not government run. 

Also Read: NCTA's Powell on Broadband Subsidies: Spend Smart

Powell said the Biden broadband infrastructure plan's goal of future-proofing the networks it is funding is a "respectable instinct." But the key is what that means, suggesting the government's crystal ball may not provide a clear picture. 

The Biden proposal suggests that the definition of "unserved" could include price and competition as well as speed. Powell said "unserved" should mean "no broadband" or "very little" broadband or inadequate, rather than spending to upgrade communities that have adequate broadband.

Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr has stopped short of endorsing acting chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel for the job on a more permanent footing, but signaled her approach to the job--necessitated in part by the fact that it is at a 2-2 political tie until a third Democrat is added--has improved the work product.

Carr was being interviewed for C-SPAN's Communicators series.

"It has been going very well at the FCC the last couple of months [since Rosenworcel took over]," he said. "We have been engaging in good faith compromise. I don't think any one member of the commission has gotten everything they wanted out of every item, but we are compromising and I think our work product has improved because of that."

Also Read: Carr Outlines 5G 'Leadership Maintenance Plan

Asked by host Peter Slen if he would support taking the "acting" off Rosenworcel's title, Carr said he didn't think the endorsement of a Republican commissioner would help, but said "it has been great of her to reach across party lines and compromise" and that he had enjoyed the work they had gotten done together.

Asked about some of his issues with the Biden Administration's billions in broadband subsidies, one of Carr's big problems was that price controls appeared clearly to be on the table. That certainly seemed to be the case with the state-by-state talking points the White House released to make its case for all that broadband subsidy money.

Carr said there was nothing that was going to scare private investment in broadband buildouts more quickly than the the threat of rate regulation. Carr said increased competition was the best way to keep the broadband price trend line going down, which he said it has been doing for a while.

He pointed out that Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has suggested that net neutrality is a way to get at price controls, adding that it has been Big Tech's strategy to use net neutrality "as a stalking horse to try and drive down the prices of the inputs to their services. 

Also Read: Rosenworcel Takes Over FCC Gavel

But he said take rate regs and price controls off the table and there was a lot of common ground on net neutrality and rules could be put in place to put the issue in the rearview mirror. Republicans have supported rules against blocking, throttling and anticompetitive paid prioritization, just not under the Title II common carrier regime that allows for rate regulation.

The Carr Communicators episode airs on C-SPAN Saturday, April 17 at 6:30 p.m. ET, and on C-SPAN2 Monday, April 19, at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET.

Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) said that a lot of ISPs, "for whatever reason," claim they have service where they don't, something he said everyone knows "has been going on for years." 

Doyle, chairman of the House Communications Subcommittee, was being interviewed for C-SPAN's Communicators series about why the FCC's broadband maps, which rely on carrier data, have not yet gotten fixed. 

Related: House Democrats Update Broadband Deployment, Adoption Plan 

He said that since Democrats and Republicans agree the maps aren't good, the FCC would just be throwing $20 million out the window by starting to give out most of the Rural Development Opportunities Fund (RDOF) subsidy money. 

FCC chairman Ajit Pai argues that delaying those subsidies would mean taking longer to close the digital divide, and that the initial $16 billion is going to areas identified as unserved, while the issues with the maps are about failing to get money to unserved areas because they are identified as served. 

But Doyle said it was mind-boggling that "given the technology and abilities we have today," he didn't know why the FCC did not have accurate maps" to direct the "precious dollars that aren't growing on trees." 

On closing the homework gap, Doyle pledged that any COVID-19 aid package that moves out of the House would include money for schools and libraries. He said there is bipartisan support for boosting distance learning but that the issue comes down to dollars and how to pay for it, which is usually where the bipartisanship breaks down.  

Democrats want to put $9 billion toward closing the homework gap. 

Doyle's Communicators interview airs on C-SPAN Saturday (July 11) at 6:30 p.m. ET, and on C-SPAN2 Monday (July 13) at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET.