Public policy toward cable television : the economics of rate controls
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Public policy toward cable television : the economics of rate controls
（AEI studies in telecommunications deregulation）
MIT Press , AEI Press, 1997
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-238) and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This study of cable rate regulation finds that unregulated monopoly may be superior to regulate monopoly, even in the presence of legal entry barriers. By comparing how rates, quality and volume changed during the periods of deregulation and reregulation in the cable industry, the authors show that cable rate regulation deals with a real problem, monopoly power in local cable markets, but has typically proven perverse in effect. The major challenge in regulating cable rates is that for whatever price level is set, cable operators may respond in countless ways - shifting their offerings, their investments, the price they demand for unregulated programming, and their marketing strategies in subtle ways. Hazlett and Spitzer argue that the net impact of regulation has been negative - increasing transaction costs and encouraging rent-seeking behaviour - so that rate regulation is ineffectual as a consumer protection policy in cable television markets. "Public Policy Towards Cable Television" is the first part of a two-volume analysis of cable rates. The second volume, "Regulation and the First Amendment", will emphasize legal analysis.
Table of Contents
- Part 1 The recent debate over cable rate regulation: the economic literature
- cable rate controls, welfare and rents. Part 2 Market power in multichannel video markets: q-ratios
- competitive pricing differentials
- competitive system sales price differentials
- is entry feasible?
- expert analysis
- market power summary. Part 3 Price controls and cable television: the cable television product
- evaluating the economic evidence on rate deregulation/reregulation
- California's rate deregulation, 1979
- federal rate deregulation, 1984
- federal reregulation, 1992
- federal redegulation redux, 1996. Part 4 The economic effects of deregulation, 1987-1992: price changes
- cable output trends
- cable operator cash flows
- detiering
- quality changes after deregulation
- the GAO's own caveat. Part 5 The economic effects of reregulation, 1993-1994: cable rates under reregulation
- subscribership and penetration
- predicted output increases from rate reductions
- basic cable viewer ratings
- cable operator cash flow ratios
- short run, long run
- reinventing the cable television industry, 1993
- the revival of pay television
- the going-forward rules
- cable satellite networks
- the financial impact of cable reregulation
- confusion, uncertainty and transactions costs. Part 6 Political coalitions and the 1992 Cable Act: lobbying for passage
- lobbying for re-regulation, February 1994
- cross-subsidies under reregulation
- the political economy of rate regulation. Part 7 New competitive realities in video delivery.
by "Nielsen BookData"
