Ever Increasing Cable TV Rates
As anyone who subscribes to cable TV knows, cable rates continue to increase. The increases are many times more than the current rate of inflation. And even with the recent 1996 cable deregulation bill passed by Congress, the increases are said to be within the law. Exactly why is this happening? Because the cable channel providers have found a way to increase the cost while seeming to play within the rules.
An example of this is cable channel ESPN. When it came to signing a contract with the National Football League to carry NFL games, the sky was the limit. Why, because they could pass the entire increase on to cable system operators and the cable operators could pass the entire increase onto cable subscribers as the 1996 cable deregulation bill allowed. Where in all this process is there any means of keeping cost down? None. The supposed cable TV deregulation bill was crafted to open the door wide to continually increasing costs with nothing to keep costs in check.
Satellite service will only be a counter balance to the ever increasing costs of cable TV when satellite service provides all local over-the-air channels in their packages. Satellite transponder limitations make that an unlikely prospect in the near future. Their current added cost package of 5 local channels is only half the over-the-air chanels available in the Boston area for example.
The bottom line is that cable TV is still out of control and subscribers are at the mercy of cable channel operators and cable service operators for access to cable channels. Until cable operators and cable service providers have real competition, cable subscribers will continue to pay more and more while seeming to get less and less.
01/04/02 ( 297 )
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