Key Issues

The video and telephone market in Texas and across the country is highly competitive.

Video Competition
Cable firms had 66.1 million subscribers in the year ended June, adding about 50,000 customers. Meanwhile, satellite TV services saw a 14% boost in customers to about 23.2 million, adding 2.8 million subscribers.

Cable companies face intense competition in the video market. Federal law prohibits cities from granting exclusive franchise rights to one cable provider.  Many cities in Texas have more than one cable operator and there is statewide competition from satellite providers.

Across the country, more than 30 million consumers now subscribe to cable’s competitors. Multiple video providers – including Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), alternative broadband providers like RCN, local telephone companies, and utilities – compete, each trying to provide unique new products while trying to outdo those provided by their competitors. As a result of this competition, a wide new array of services – both video and non-video – is available to consumers over several alternative broadband platforms, including cable, telephone, wireless, and DBS. Consumers today have real choices in the video market – and they are exercising those choices as Congress and the Texas Legislature intended.

From the 2006 FCC Video Competition Report
The competitive video market continues to provide consumers with increased choice, better picture quality, and greater technological innovation.  The report concludes that almost all consumers may opt to receive video services from over-the-air broadcast television, a cable service, and at least two DBS providers. In addition, a growing number of consumers can access video programming through digital broadcast spectrum, fiber to the node or to the premises, or video over the Internet.  Moreover, once consumers have selected a provider, technology such as advanced set-top boxes, digital video recorders, and mobile video services give them even more control over what, when, and how they receive information. Furthermore, many MVPDs offer nonvideo services in tandem with their traditional video services. Click here for video competition facts from FCC report.

Broadband Competition

The FCC reported that more than 99 percent of all U.S. ZIP codes received broadband service from at least one provider by the end of 2006.

Phone Competition
In Texas, more consumers are choosing a cable company as their voice provider. In 2006, Time Warner Cable San Antonio hit a significant milestone by signing up its 110,000th digital phone customer, accomplishing this goal in under two years. San Antonio continues to be one of the fastest growing digital phone markets in the company, as one in six San Antonians subscribe to Time Warner’s phone service.

Nationally, cable phone service is now available to more than 75 million homes and more than seven million customers currently subscribe to the service. By the year 2011, cable telephone customers are projected to grow to 24 million which is expected to result in over $100 billion of savings for both residential and small business users, concludes the economic research firm Microeconomic Consulting and Research Associates, based in Washington, D.C.