Audio Video News

Did FCC Cop Out on Cable Rates?

Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 28, 2015

The average cable subscriber is staggering under constant rate hikes. But don’t expect any help from the Federal Communications Commission. It has just issued a ruling saying cable operators are presumed to face “effective competition.” That will make it harder for local governments to petition for regulation of skyrocketing cable rates.

Under the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, cable operators were presumed to have little competition. In those days, they had more than 95 percent market share. Today that’s fallen under 50 percent with the arrival of satellite and telco-TV operators. However, there seems to be a gentleman’s agreement among cable, satellite, and telco-TV operators that pay-TV should get more expensive all the time (with the possible exception of Verizon—see “Networks Knock ‘Skinny’ Verizon,” page 24).

The FCC voted 5 to 0 to reverse the presumption that small cable operators have little competition. The vote to extend that to larger cable operators was closer, at 3 to 2, with the two Republican commissioners joining Democratic chair Tom Wheeler, and the other two Dems dissenting. The vote ratified existing practice, in which the FCC admits it already “grants nearly all requests for a finding of effective competition.”

Sentiment in Congress mostly supported the FCC action. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said the FCC “has recognized the competitive reality,” noting that the $23.01 paid in “noncompetitive communities” is close to the $22.51 paid in others deemed competitive. However, the cable price report he cited applies only to basic cable packages consisting primarily of broadcast channels.

That’s why the FCC’s latest presumption is “flawed,” according to John Bergmayer of consumer watchdog Public Knowledge. He says large cable operators “bundle cable television with high-speed broadband and often have control over valuable programming. They are in a fundamentally different marketplace position than the small cable operators that Congress is concerned with.”

COMMENTS
kevon27's picture
Submitted by kevon27 on August 28, 2015 - 1:28pm

Answer: CANCEL YOUR CABLE SERVICE.

pw's picture
Submitted by pw on August 29, 2015 - 5:45pm

.. For Basball and other sports I don't/wont't watch!

Billy's picture
Submitted by Billy on August 30, 2015 - 9:34am

If the general public wants to pay dumb jocks who in the ordinary world would never even have graduated high school, millions of dollars...that's okay with me. But why should I be forced to pay way too high bills just to watch other programing besides sports? If your average sports lover is dumb enough to pay hundreds of dollars to watch, say, NFL Season Ticket, and still get stuck watching commercial(!) then why not let THEM pay extra to have 47 ESPN channels on THEIR cable? I like to watch movies, news, and documentaries, not steroid fuel creatures. I suspect its gouging the public. It is said that the high cost of sports programing could never be supported by just the sports lovers alone, but is that standing on the high moral ground? I know, I know..cable is a luxury item that I could pull the plug on, no one is forcing me to buy it. Ideally, one could buy just the channels one wanted, and to heck with the rest. The five or six I routinely watch should cost me a modest sum. It would be nice to see just what an alacarte service would cost. I strong suspect the oligopolies that run the entertainment industries would make it so painful, no one would bite. I am very close to cutting the cord, just need my 17 year old daughter out the door and in college. She for some reason needs to stare at some of the dumbest reality programming ever conceived. What she sees in I will never know, but we have an agreement, keep those straight As on the report card and Daddy keeps DIRECTV in the house. After that, its an extra hundred bucks in my wallet every month. Amazing, over three dollars a day and I still have to watch cat food commercials. No premium channels, truly amazing. We need more competition in this country. That is where congress shows their corruption. Again, it is not a needed service, but where are they when it comes to Trust busting? Teddy Rosevelt needs to be dug up and put back in office, for sure!

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