Based on the 1984 Cable act – the FCC could now regulate the Cable too. Per the Wall Street Dated Nov 12, 2007, the Cable companies have become too dominant in the ‘Pay-television industry’. The cable act also called - The 70-70 rule states if Cable penetration exceeds 70% of households in the U.S. and that 70% of those households take out a subscription, then the FCC would have additional rights to regulate them. This surely is some good news for the Telecom operators, who have been investing heavily to provide more video services called IPTV to the US users.
The National Cable & Telecommunication Association (NCTA) does not think additional regulations by the FCC would be in their best interests and believe the FCC is twisting statistics.
As for the consumers – this would be good news and result in
1) Potentially reduction of subscription rates,
2) Get access to channels that they really want to pay for (a la carte pricing), and
3) Have more choices, since the regulation will ensure more independent programmers have access to this market.
Of course the intensity of competition would increase for the service providers – but then this should be a good thing for all. As to thrive, they will need to constantly innovate. Didn’t somebody say “Innovate or Die”?
Need more info -
On the Financial Times http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/43ff9cd8-90bf-11dc-a6f2-0000779fd2ac.html
On the Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119483049023089622.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
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