Public Knowledge Senior Counsel John Bergmayer will testify before the U.S. House Committee on Energy & Commerce Tuesday, June 4 at 10:30 a.m. His testimony in the hearing on “STELAR Review: Protecting Consumers in an Evolving Media Marketplace” will urge Congress to make STELAR permanent in order to enable rural satellite providers to continue serving their communities.

Today, Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced the “Truth-In-Billing, Remedies, and User Empowerment over Fees” (TRUE Fees) Act to ensure that pay TV, cellular service, and broadband providers include “below-the-line” fee items in their advertised price for service.

Today, Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) introduced the TRUE Fees Act to ensure that pay TV, cellular service, and broadband providers include “below-the-line” fee items in their advertised price for service.

Blogs Video Marketplace

No Shortage of Ways to Bring TV Prices Down

By John Bergmayer

July 30, 2018

Competition, Video Marketplace, Future of Video, Set-Top Boxes, Cable Pricing

This recent story (paywalled) about the financial challenges YouTube TV and other “virtual cable” providers face is a good illustration of some points we’ve been making at Public Knowledge for a while. As the story notes, “these streaming services have yet to figure out how to make money. In fact, the more people they sign up, the more money they lose. That’s because the services are paying more for programming than what they’re charging consumers.”

Cable costs are out of control. Over the last six years, consumers’ cable bills have increased by a whopping 40 percent.