Real Cable Competition Is on the Way

Board of Contributors

IT'S HARD TO BEUEVE that Americans once got along without television. The TV explosion began about 1948, forever changing the way we live and communicate. What began as a bulky piece of furniture displaying fuzzy, black-and-white images is now a sleek, flat appliance showing clear, brightly colored pictures from around the world.

Early TV reception using rabbit ears and roof antennas was limited and often poor. In a small mountain town in Pennsylvania, television distributors John and Margaret Walson erected the first Community Television Antenna (CATV) as a strategy to sell more product. This is considered to have been the birth of cable television. Pay-TV arrived in 1972 in the form of HBO and we have been paying ever since. HBO, launched in Wilkes Barre, Pa., was viewed by only a few hundred people at first. It is now the world's largest pay cable service with over 11.5 million viewers.

Today cable providers offer everything from TV to Internet to telephone service. The cable industry, which grew as a natural monopoly due to the economies of scale needed for efficient production and distribution, set boundaries that eliminated competition. Now 80% of the cable market is controlled by five companies.

This has left the consumer with consistent rate increases and few choices of cable operators. DirectTV which beams signals from satellites, and some Internet providers are taking a bite out of the cable pie. But is this enough?

In New Jersey, Gov. Jon Corzine last week signed a bill allowing Verizon Communications to enter the cable market without having to win franchise rights one community at a time. So let's make way for competition. But since nothing will change overnight, here are a few things you can do:

* Always ask about promotions to get the lowest price. If you are seeking a special promotion, ask for a marketing or direct-sales person. Look for flyers on your door, or stop a technician in your neighborhood; technicians now have the ability to offer low rates. I recently secured six months of digital cable and Internet access for only $60 per month. When this special ends, I will seek out the rep. to get another good deal.

* Don't be duped, ask for what you deserve. Many households have multiple TV sets and we expect our service to be the same on all of them. I learned that the HBO included in my package would appear on just one TV A phone call and few questions later, we have HBO everywhere.

* The final item on my cable list concerns the HDTV box. Since my digital package includes several premium channels that require the box, must I pay for three boxes? The cable company seems to think so, but we haven't had a little conversation yet.

Competition is healthy, and we can only hope that the arrival of Verizon will mean for the cable-TV market in New Jersey what the breakup of AT&T, and the advent of new technologies, has meant for telephone service by way of increased convenience and lower rates.

[Author Affiliation]

Marlene J. Waldock is owner of 1st Impression Communications and founder of Because We Are Women. She can be reached at info@firstimpressioncom.com