Cable Choice debate heats up in Missouri
January 31st, 2007 by Brendan SteinhauserLooks like last year’s Missouri franchise reform debate is heating up again. FreedomWorks Missouri will be ready to engage on this issue again to bring cable choice to Missouri consumers.
The video-franchising debate has returned to Missouri, and a key player has switched sides.
Almost a year after killing his own bill on the issue, state Sen. John Griesheimer has introduced legislation to allow for streamlined entry into the Show-Me State video services market. He authored a similar measure last year that appeared to be on the fast track for the governor’s desk before it died in the spring.
But this time Griesheimer already has won over the chief opponent of last year’s bill: the state’s dominant cable providers. Competing telephone firms looking to offer new video services have been seeking franchising reform measures on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures. Existing cable firms have typically defended their home turf by objecting to proposals allowing new entrants to obtain statewide deals and to bypass disparate local franchise rules.
Cable firms in Missouri have embraced Griesheimer’s latest proposal, S.B. 284, because it would let them abrogate their existing contracts to also seek statewide deals.
Missouri Cable Telecommunications Association Executive Director Greg Harrison told AP earlier this month that Griesheimer’s revised proposal “provides a level playing field for all video service providers in the state of Missouri.”
