IPI Editorial: Pigs, or maybe Hogs, at the Government Feeding Trough

One might assume that when the economy has been stuck in slow or slower for years that elected officials could at least easily agree to eliminate wasteful spending. Sadly, that assumption is wrong.

In 2001, the Rural Utility Service (RUS) Broadband Loan Program kicked off as a government means to encourage broadband build-out to rural areas where it was not yet available. However, rather than the money flowing to places where there was no broadband, it was often directed to places where private broadband providers were already operating. In other words, the federal government was providing the money to start a new operation to compete with the private sector. 

Shocking? The US Department of Agriculture’s inspector general, which oversees the program, documented this wasteful and economically harmful history in not one but two different reports. Despite the reports, and testimony on Capitol Hill, to this day the program still allows for loans in places where even multiple competitors are providing service.

Compounding the issue is that some of these same rural carriers then take universal service funds, or USF (a tax on telecom companies, which is passed through to consumers to pay for universal service to all schools, libraries, etc.) So taxes collected from taxpayers to directly pay off loans given by the government specifically to fund government-selected competitors to private investment.

How does this end?... Click here to read the rest of the story.

TEXCam 2012 - A Huge Success!

On March 21, Texas cable operators, programmers and vendors came together in Austin for the first annual TEXCam 2012. TEXCam is an industry marketing event that provides all segments of the industry an opportunity to discuss the latest trends, challenges and opportunities.

In addition to a "Hot Topics" session that included everything from bandwidth management and the competitive landscape, to the integration of social media, there was a very informative panel discussion on media convergence. Of note from this discussion are some interesting statistics:

• First fifty years of television had three major changes: Broadcast TV, Cable TV and the VCR
• Last ten years alone we've had more than 7 including: DVD, DVR, VOD, Online Video, Mobile Video, Internet Connected TVs and Internet Enabled TVs
• Women watch more video on TV and men watch more video online; men & women watch video equally on mobile devices
• And, despite promotion of cord cutting, more than 90% of households still pay for a TV subscription