cable TV vpn

Distribution. In a market worth billions annually,1 a cable operator such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable or Cox is usually the lone local cable operator, having long ago received governmentbacked monopolies and guaranteed returns.2 In the 1990s, satellite operators were able to compete more effectively, largely through regulatory changes such as a compulsory copyright license for broadcasting and program access rules requiring cable operators to make their content available to rival satellite providers.3 This decade, after years of promises, telephone companies finally entered the cable TV vpn  business, with the benefit of regulatory changes,4 though their deployment plans will target no more than 40 percent of U.S. homes.5 So far, government attempts to increase competition in the cable market have resulted in only four players at most, with the local cable operator still dominant. And entry barriers are so high that additional facilities-based competitors are not expected to emerge. This limited competition and insurmountable barriers to entry have resulted in even higher prices,6 with few advances in formats and cuts in capital investments even as the cost of technology falls.7 Broader competition is sorely needed. For  consumers, the distribution market is local not national. On average, the local cable operator retains roughly 68 percent of the local cable TV consumer market, according to the most recent Federal Communications Commission study in 2007.8 The satellite operators DirecTV and EchoStar roughly split most of the rest, though phone companies are making inroads.9 More recent figures, which are not available, would likely show that Verizon's Fios product has taken some market share, though Fios is available only in few, generally wealthy, and densely populated communities.10 These local markets are oligopolies; indeed, the cable operators' 68 percent share likely signifies monopoly power.11