Telecommunications: National Survey of Cable Television Rates and Services : Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance, Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives

Front Cover
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 14 - Association before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance House Committee on Energy and Commerce July 11, 1990 Restructuring the American Financial Services System Mr.
Page 14 - Franchising authorities were allowed to regulate rates for basic service. The Commission retained exclusive jurisdiction over all operational aspects of cable systems, including signal carriage and technical standards. Franchising authorities moved quickly to fill the regulatory vacuum...
Page 13 - The franchise agreement could also be used by the locality to prevent cable operators from charging unreasonably high rates for what was seen as an essential service in these areas. In addition, cities viewed the ability to deny or delay a requested rate increase as a useful tool to enforce other provisions of a franchise agreement, such as the obligation to provide service to all residents of the service area. As cable television expanded both its services and percentage includes municipally owned...
Page 55 - ... connecting over 60,000 computers nationwide and overseas — to shut down. This program, commonly referred to as a computer virus or worm, entered computers and continuously recopied itself, consuming resources and hampering network operations. Concerned about Internet security and the virus incident, the Chairman, Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance, House Committee on Energy and Commerce, asked GAO to...
Page 1 - ... availability of options such as additional cable outlets for second television sets, and (4) overall revenue to cable operators per subscriber. I would like to briefly summarize the results of our survey.
Page 4 - I noted earlier, the Cable Act essentially prohibited local rate regulation after December 29, 1986, our survey showed that 34 percent of the cable systems reported that they were not regulated as of December 1, 1986. Therefore, we compared increases in rates for those systems already deregulated in December 1986 with increases for those systems deregulated with passage of the act.
Page 6 - Factbook, a well-known industry 10For the same 23-month period of our survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Urban Consumer Price Index, (CPI) showed a 21.5 percent increase in the average consumer's monthly bill for cable television service. By comparison, the CPI showed a 8.7 percent increase for the 2 years prior to deregulation (Jan. 1985 to Dec. 1986). B-226720 reference book. Of the 8,908 cable systems in their data base, we selected our sample...
Page 1 - ... for the lowest priced basic service, have been deregulated since December 29, 1986, in most communities, pursuant to the Cable Act. Our survey showed that, from December 1, 1986, through October 1988, monthly rates for the lowest priced basic service increased by 29 percent, from an average of $11.23 to $14.48 per subscriber. This rate increase was accompanied by an increase in the average number of basic channels offered (from nearly 24 to about 30). By comparison, monthly rates for the most...
Page 2 - ... monthly revenue to cable operators per subscriber — a key indicator of cable system revenue patterns — increased, on average, by 14 percent, from $21.58 to $24.68.2 Despite basic service rate increases for both lowest priced and most popular services, overall cable subscriptions increased by...
Page 15 - In 1988, the US Court of Appeals generally affirmed FCC'S rules established pursuant to the Cable Act, but ordered FCC to either better support its current standard for determining the availability of television channels or develop a new...

Bibliographic information