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From: Miami Herald

Florida Cable Bill Being Pushed Through Legislature

March 22, 2007
By Jim Wyss

A controversial proposal to open up Florida’s cable-TV market to increased competition could win House approval as early as today, even though it’s expected to face some static in the Senate.

The Consumer Choice Act of 2007 would allow new cable competitors — namely telephone companies — to enter the market by signing a single, statewide cable contract. Under the current law, companies have to hammer out deals with more than 450 individual cities and counties.

The bill’s House sponsor, Trey Traviesa, a Republican from Brandon, said the changes are needed to spur competition in a state where only 2 percent of households have a choice of cable providers.

But its critics — including an unlikely alliance of consumer rights groups and incumbent cable providers — say the bill is short on safeguards.

In particular, by allowing new competitors to pick and choose their coverage areas, some fear poor and rural communities might be left out in the cold.

And existing cable companies fear the newcomers will have the right ”to cherry pick our high-value customers,” said Steve Wilkerson, president of the Florida Cable Telecommunications Association.

City governments also have balked at the plan, fearing they will lose the right to negotiate local concessions from the cable companies. Those concessions — which can range from providing public access channels to tree-planting projects — add up to about $20 million statewide, according to legislative staff analysis.

A SECOND TRY

It was just such concerns that ultimately killed a similar proposal last year. But this time around the bill has been rushed through committees and onto the floor in less than three weeks.

Traviesa recently sweetened the deal by padding it with two hard-to-oppose issues: a provision that would automatically enroll poor Floridians in Life Line, a subsidized telephone service, and a provision that would halt the final stage of a phone-rate hike that had been approved in 2003.

”The bill has been loaded up to make it more appealing from a PR standpoint,” said Wilkerson. “But it’s just window dressing.”

TOUGH OPPOSITION

Even so, the proposal is expected to see tougher opposition going in the Senate, where a similar bill is expected to be heard by the Communications and Public Utilities Committee on Thursday. Cable companies and other groups have said they hope to argue for anti-cherry-picking amendments on the Senate bill.

But such measures could kill the purpose of the legislation, which is to encourage free and open competition and drive down prices, said Traviesa.

”If we start conceding to everybody and adding all these things on,” he said, “we could [end up] with a real mutant for consumers that ends up hurting them more than helping them.”