01-15-02, 06:07 AM
According to the Federal Communications Commission's annual look at competition in the multichannel marketplace, cable companies are growing - albeit slowly - and continue to increase prices at a rate that outpaces inflation.
But satellite TV is growing faster than the wired multichannel incumbent, the study said.
In its eighth annual report sent to Congress on the status of multichannel competition, the FCC said local TV channel availability - among other factors - helped satellite TV grow from almost 13 million households to about 16 million households between June 2000 and June 2001, nearly two and a half times the cable subscriber growth rate.
Cable subscribers numbered 69 million as of June 2001, up about 1.9 percent from the 67.7 million customers reported in June 2000. Cable is still the dominant technology for the delivery of video programming to consumers, the FCC said, although its share of the multichannel market declined to 78 percent in 2001 from 80 percent in 2000.
During the period under review, cable rates rose faster than inflation, the FCC said. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics cited in the commission study, between June 2000 and June 2001, cable prices rose 4.24 percent compared to a 3.25 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index, which measures general price changes.
From <a href="http://www.skyreport.com" target=none>SkyReport</a> (Used with permission)
But satellite TV is growing faster than the wired multichannel incumbent, the study said.
In its eighth annual report sent to Congress on the status of multichannel competition, the FCC said local TV channel availability - among other factors - helped satellite TV grow from almost 13 million households to about 16 million households between June 2000 and June 2001, nearly two and a half times the cable subscriber growth rate.
Cable subscribers numbered 69 million as of June 2001, up about 1.9 percent from the 67.7 million customers reported in June 2000. Cable is still the dominant technology for the delivery of video programming to consumers, the FCC said, although its share of the multichannel market declined to 78 percent in 2001 from 80 percent in 2000.
During the period under review, cable rates rose faster than inflation, the FCC said. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics cited in the commission study, between June 2000 and June 2001, cable prices rose 4.24 percent compared to a 3.25 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index, which measures general price changes.
From <a href="http://www.skyreport.com" target=none>SkyReport</a> (Used with permission)