Bernie Sanders And Elizabeth Warren May Have Just Saved Consumers $14 Billion

Bernie Sanders And Elizabeth Warren May Have Just Saved Consumers $14 Billion

Ok this is some AWESOME news. Sticking it to the cable companies always gets me excited. Read on.

The new regulation would open up the set-top box market to consumer choice so that customers could rent or buy devices from providers other than their cable companies. About 99 percent of cable customers currently rent set-top boxes from their cable company. According to a survey commissioned by Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), cable customers pay an average of $232 a year for those rentals -- a $20 billion market annually, just for set-top box rentals.

Set-top box fees have soared, even as prices for newer technology have plummeted. Consumer payments for set-top boxes are up 185 percent over the past two decades, according to FCC estimates, even as prices for laptops and cell phones have fallen.

Up to $14 billion of the total market is economically pointless profit for cable companies, according to an analysis by the Consumer Federation of America and Public Knowledge, a nonprofit Internet freedom group. Big cable companies including Comcast and Verizon have leveraged their market power to charge prices far higher than what would be permitted in a competitive industry.

Yea, any surprise there? Cable companies are gouging their customers.

Cable companies and their lobbyists are furious about the plan, which the commission is set to vote on Feb. 18.

Good.

But the proposal didn't emerge from a vacuum. Liberal senators have been pressuring the FCC to act on cable "monopolies" for months. In July, current Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) organized a letter calling on the agency to collect a host of consumer pricing information from cable companies -- a move designed to show that in many regions of the country, households pay arbitrarily high prices due to a lack of other cable options. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Markey and Blumenthal all signed on to the letter.

After Markey and Blumenthal did their own pricing survey in July, they organized another letter to the FCC in November, specifically targeting set-top boxes. Sanders, Warren and Franken all signed on, as did Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Corey Booker (D-N.J.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

That's right folks. Bernie Sanders to the rescue!

Look everyone hates the cable company. It's pretty much a fact of life, and one of the reasons -I- don't have cable anymore is because it's too expensive and you get a lot of crappy programming wedged in with a few gems. And if you want more gems you have to pay for even more crappy programming. The set top box fees are extremely irritating in that we can't shop around for better and cheaper technology. In fact, that sums up the whole damn cable industry. I hate the fact they get a legalized monopoly. So screw them for being mad at these new rules; it's about time the government cracked down on their obnoxious price gouging behaviors.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Could this blow up in our faces? My cable company owns a monopoly on the television/internet market in my town because no other markets want to deal with the high taxes for trying to compete with the local cable company. I do not have or use much television, but I do use their internet. I am wondering if cable companies will spike the price of other services to make up for the profit loss.

All in all, I hate my cable company, so go Sanders and Warren!!

a reply to: hubrisinxs

Do you rent your router from the cable company? My company gives me the option of supplying my own router. I'm not sure about set top boxes though, because I refused to get cable.

Seems like a non-partisan deal. Win-win for everyone, but the cable companies that have created a monopoly anyways. Hopefully a lot more can get onboard.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I believe that South Park sums up eloquently the way the cable company sadistically enjoys the way they treat the consumers!

I've never understood it...the gouging of cable customers in the age of Netflix, Hulu, and others. You'd think the cable companies would adjust their pricing to stop the mass migration of customers that rely exclusively on Internet available programming and make themselves appear as a viable option. I know many people have both, but I know a good number of people that I personally know that have done away with cable altogether due to the crazy fees they charge and just do Hulu/Netflix.

a reply to: elementalgrove

Hell yea! I was thinking about that episode too when I wrote this thread.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I cut the umbilical cord about 2 yrs ago. With internet, Amazon, Roku and a nice antenna I get literally hundreds and hundreds of channels that I W A N T to watch ( if need be).

I think this is an awesome regulation

Gooooo Bernando~

a reply to: the owlbear

That's what I do. Hulu. It's got more programming than I know what to do with, plus I pay a small bit extra and no commercials. It's the best.

a reply to: the owlbear

I'm one of those people, why pay crazy prices for cable when I can use the net and netflix, etc. There's stuff I like on cable but not enough I'm willing to pay a fortune to spend 90% of my time channel surfing.

Don't watch!
It saves you money, and your sanity!

Well done to the two pinkos.

a reply to: Puppylove

That's the thing...more and more people are unplugging. It's far cheaper to use internet options since most of us have cable modems already. The cable companies have given no incentive for consumers to stay with programming service. Bundling an obsolete land line for free doesn't feel like a deal.
Binge watching entire seasons has become part of the norm. People don't feel the need to tune in every week anymore and adjust their schedules around tv.

a reply to: the owlbear

I have Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime and in total, I pay about the same for a whole year of those, as I would for one month of Dish Network. I like Dish, but to get the 20 channels I actually wanted, I had to get the whole package, which drove the price up and up and up and................
Now, I just have an HD antennae to get local channels and the others. I will never go back to a satellite or cable company.

a reply to: DAVID64

I don't know, but I feel like we may be on the cusp of something not unlike the twilight of long distance service that phone companies experienced. Technology has changed so fast business has a hard time keeping up with consumers for mass media and entertainment.

Lobbying with money (Citizen United, etc...) is why we can't have an actual free market. This is what reining in of the super-rich is all about, not class warfare. This is why we need such strong voices as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on the most powerful platforms possible.

Damn near everyone else has cashed out of the fight while they stand up there under brutal, meme-filled criticism, actually educating people on what's happening and why. Yet still Americans by and large from all ideological viewpoints vote for memes because in their lazy, slothful minds it has become better to vote for the ones they think can get the furthest in the game as opposed to voting for anyone trying to up-end the game board.

Maybe though, finally... people are starting to look around.

Yes I'm on topic

a reply to: Kali74

This is why I support Bernie. And if he gets nominated, Warren should be his running mate.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

ROFL, he had a great interview this a.m. on the Today show

a reply to: ReadLeader

Nice. I didn't get to see it though...

not just serious price gouging, but 20 minutes of commercials during a "1 hour" show

netflix and an antenna are the way to go