Why Dont We Love Our Cable Company

I love this title, "Why Don't We Love Our Cable Company?" Greg Gudorf, "Why Don't We Love Our Cable Company?" So is there anyone here who really does love their cable company? Almost never happens. Come on, they bring us hundreds of channels of TV. With nothing on. They bring us an internet that never slows down, never drops out, right? And their customer service, it's to die for. I mean, I would strangle them myself. Overall, people do not like their cable companies to the point it reminds me of that line from an old movie where the guy opens the window, sticks his head out, and yells, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Mr. Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters, Allow me to share a little bit of the history behind cable TV and perhaps some light on why we feel this way about our cable companies. I also will promise you a tip on how to save $2,500 of your hard-earned wages if you can make a decision. Back in the day, when television was a newfangled contraption, if you had a TV set, you also had to worry about getting an antenna. Now, if you lived in a metropolitan area close by to the transmitters, not a problem. A pair of rabbit ears— you remember those? A pair of rabbit ears worked just fine, and the TV signals were free. Life was good. If you lived outside of a metropolitan area, you probably had to invest in an outdoor antenna. Now, outdoor antennas were much larger than any pair of rabbit ears. But the TV signals were still free. If you're wondering why TV was free back in the day, it's because our always helpful federal government cut a deal where they auctioned off the radio spectrum that the TV stations needed. They auctioned that off to a few entrepreneurs under a licensing arrangement that gave the entrepreneur a quasi-monopoly in their market because there was only 3 of them originally, in any market. Monopolies are illegal, of course, unless the government says they're not. These entrepreneurs, these TV station owners, saw a great opportunity. The government did this because those entrepreneurs were willing to pay handsomely license fees to the government. But I digress. Back out in the field, entrepreneurs were helping spread TV across the country. They would set up tall television antenna towers outside of town and then string cables all over to the homes so that homeowners could get TV without the hassle of an antenna. It was a win for the homeowner. They got the free TV signals and all they had to pay for was a share of the cable and antenna structure and the maintenance cost behind it. Everyone was happy. Entrepreneurs were making business, consumers were getting TV. Consumers were enjoying the TV until local governments said, "Wait a minute, there's a lot of cables being strung through our city. You entrepreneurs are building a business on the backs of our public thoroughfare. Someone must watch out and protect the citizens of our fine community." And then they said those those 5 dreaded words: "There ought to be a law." Local governments turned to the federal playbook to take a page out of what they should— for what they should do, and they decided to license a monopoly right to a community to a single entrepreneur. And so these entrepreneurs competed over who would pay the most to the local government for the license, and they were granted a government franchise monopoly to serve cable TV in that community. This is why today most of us only have one choice when it comes to cable TV company. It's because our government appointed that company to be that, that person. Now, these entrepreneurs realized the power of a monopoly. Come on. It's illegal, right? A monopoly has real market power to charge rates, to expand their business, and by definition, they are the only place to go when the consumer wants that TV solution. The local governments, on the other hand, were more than happy to accept the fees. And they put a few restrictions on the operators, kind of like the broadcasters, that you have to carry so much community TV signals, etc. But it was really a money flow that made it all work. Now today, there are more than 5,200 cable systems that stretch across our entire country. 5,200 systems. They cover 95% of all the TV households. You know, there's 116 million TV households in the US? It's a big market. Those cable operators take money or collect money, however you prefer to phrase it, from over 50% of those 160 million TV households. Most of the remainder of the households pay their money to satellite or telco for their TV, but that business is the cable TV's business. Of the 5,200 systems, 660 companies operate those systems. Of the 660 companies, which range from a Comcast down to a mom-and-pop, of the 660, 5 of those companies, and if the current deals being talked about in the press go through, 3 of those companies will control 90% of the cable TV market in the United States. 15 years ago, the cost of TV signals on cable was $25 a month. A typical household. Today, the TV portion only is $75. But wait, there's more. Cable created a thing called the triple play. The triple play combines TV, internet, and telephone service. The average household pays $155 a month for that service. $1,860 a year. It's no wonder that cable insiders refer to the triple play as the triple ¡Hey! And so now you know a little bit about the history of cable TV and how it came to be that we have the choices we do. You know a little bit about the power of a government-granted franchise monopoly. And if you realize that $1,860 in triple pay fees requires about $2,500 in wages, because you got to pay taxes to the government, you've got a way to save $2,500 should you choose to let go of your cable TV. Now, as logical as the math might be, I doubt any of us are going to go disconnect our cable when we leave the room. It's perfectly logical. We won't do it. Instead, feel free to go home, open a window, stick your head out, and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, but I'm going to keep taking it!" Does work.