Cable bill switches control of TV from city to state
Governor’s approval expected for bill that gives more cable access to companies
By CLIFF AINSWORTH
March 16, 2007
JEFFERSON CITY — A bill that landed on Gov. Matt Blunt’s desk Thursday could drastically alter the way cable television service is offered to Missourians.
Given final approval by the General Assembly this week, the measure is the latest step in a nationwide trend to give telecommunication companies easier access to cable TV markets.
Blunt’s office indicated the governor intended to sign the bill, which proponents say will result in more options and lower prices for cable TV customers.
The bill would do away with the current negotiations process that cable companies complete to offer cable TV in Missouri. Rather than approaching individual cities to gain approval to offer service, the companies would instead go through the state’s Public Service Commission.
While the change is primarily administrative, it would make it easier for companies such as AT&T — which lobbied heavily for the legislation — to begin offering cable TV in Missouri.
Sen. John Griesheimer, R-Washington, the sponsor of the bill, was ecstatic after it passed.
Griesheimer contends that making it easier for companies to offer cable will benefit customers.
Public Service Commission Chairman Jeff Davis voices concerns that under the bill’s changes, cable companies might push customers into service
contracts similar to those required by cell phone providers.
Cable companies that currently have no competition in a city would not be prohibited from requiring contracts to keep customers from changing service to a new competitor.
Davis also said that if customers had disputes with their cable company, they wouldn’t be allowed to switch to another provider until the contract expires, and the PSC wouldn’t be able to turn to the government for help.
Davis said that the bill needed to have the PSC or some Missouri agency given authority to address customer complaints.
The Missouri Municipal League says the legislation would remove city governments as an outlet for customers who are upset with their cable service.
Griesheimer was taken aback by the notion that cable companies would begin requiring contracts and said he didn’t think they would take that route out of fear that it would deter customers. Davis said the bill provides adequate customer service protections by requiring service providers to establish a grievance process and allowing service and billing complaints to be filed with a hearing commission.
The bill also allows municipalities to require cable companies to provide 24-hour customer service phone numbers and to keep callers on hold for no more than 30 seconds.
AT&T, which supports the bill, had been in negotiations to provide cable in 120 Missouri cities and towns before the bill’s passage, reaching agreements with 10 — a rate that AT&T spokesman Kerry Hibbs said is far too slow for the company.
AT&T spent $168,434 in campaign contributions to Missouri state candidates during the fall election season, according to a January report the company filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission.
The lobbying effort on the cable bill drew skepticism from House Minority Leader Jeff Harris, D-Columbia, who was one of only four House members to vote against the legislation.
“When it looks like you’ve got a huge concentration of power and you’ve got nearly every lobbyist in Jefferson City, including the governor’s brother, retained to lobby on behalf of this bill, the Missourian in me says, ‘Let’s take a closer look at this,’” Harris said.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least seven other states have already passed statewide video franchise legislation in the past two years, including Kansas.
But whether the state’s franchising changes have encouraged cable TV competition in that state is unclear.
“It’s probably a little premature to make that assessment,” said Rosemary Foreman, spokeswoman for the Kansas Corporation Commission—Kansas’ equivalent to Missouri’s PSC. Kansas passed video franchising legislation last spring.
Missouri’s bill would require the PSC to report on the success of statewide franchising to the legislature annually for the first three years. Whether cable prices have gone down would not be a requirement of the report, Griesheimer said.