FCC Ends Sole Cable Deals for Apartments
by
Carole I. Smith
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The Federal Communications Commission, hoping to reduce the rising costs of cable television, recently ruled to open markets across the country to far-ranging competition by striking down thousands of contracts that gave individual cable companies exclusive rights to provide service to an apartment building. This ruling will ban exclusive agreements that cable television operators have with apartment buildings, opening up competition for other video providers that could eventually lead to lower prices.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin stated that increased competition from telecommunications companies now offering video services would help lower cable prices, which have risen 93 percent in the last decade. It is anticipated that this ruling would help lower cable rates for millions of subscribers who live in apartment buildings and other multi-unit dwellings, or about 25 million households. He said the move would particularly help minorities who disproportionately live in multi-unit dwellings.
The rule would prohibit cable companies, such as Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable, Inc, from enforcing existing cable TV contracts with apartment managers and allow telecommunications companies, such as Verizon Communications, Inc. and AT & T Inc., to offer video services along with high-speed Internet access and phone service.
It will also shift the bargaining power over cable and broadband services to apartment residents from landlords and tenant associations.
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