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Reason Foundation: "Cable Competition Offers More For Less"Steven Titch, telecom policy analysts for the Reason Foundation, wrote this op-ed featured in today's Orange Countty Register. Titch pens a compelling argument for vidoe franchising reform that benefits consumers by ending the cable companyies monopoly on the delivery of video entertainment. The Ciyt of Anaheim -- in contrast to virtually every other local government in the United STates -- is a leader in ending the cable monopoly and its accompanying franchise fee and allowing other companies to compete for consumers' business.
Here's is the Titch article:
Cable competition offers more for less
Legislature should end monopolistic alliance of cities, cable TV companies
By STEVE TITCH
Rising cable television bills have been straining household budgets and driving consumers crazy. But cable customers might finally catch a break as California pushes forward on legislation to reform our antiquated system of video franchising – the revenue-sharing agreements that cable companies sign with local governments in return for the right to offer video services to taxpayers on an exclusive basis.
Remember rotary phones and television sets with tuning knobs? Remember when personal computers did not exist? That's the era in which the current franchising system was created. Local governments wrote exclusive agreements with cable and phone companies for the purpose of "protecting consumers," i.e., regulating what was then a monopoly service. At the time, there was no competition with, or between, phone and cable service providers.
But today competition is booming among a variety of rapidly evolving technologies including cable TV, cell phones, satellite TV, Internet telephone, Internet TV and others.
So now, instead of protecting consumers, the old laws are actually shielding large companies from emerging competition and are preventing consumers from taking advantage of better services and lower prices.
You can read the entire article here.
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