The federal Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 allowed for the regulation of basic cable rates in communities where there was no “effective competition,” between cable providers. When Congress passed the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, a statutory definition for “effective competition” was created. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established a presumption that cable providers were not subject to effective competition and required a cable provider to prove there was effective competition to avoid rate regulation. In the years that followed, cable providers filed petitions with the FCC seeking to establish that effective competition existed in various communities in Massachusetts. The FCC’s orders on these petitions are linked below.
In 2015, the FCC issued an Order that reversed the presumption of effective competition, creating the current day standard. It is now presumed that cable providers are subject to effective competition and communities now bear the burden of establishing the absence of effective competition to regulate basic cable rates. The DTC filed petitions with the FCC to establish that there was no effective competition in a number of Massachusetts communities and those that were successful regained the ability to regulate basic cable rates.
In 2018, Charter, a cable provider, filed a petition with the FCC seeking to establish that it faced effective competition where it operated in Massachusetts because of the availability of a streaming service that provided live television over a broadband internet connection. The DTC filed an opposition and, ultimately, the FCC issued an order granting Charter’s petition. The DTC appealed this order to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The DTC’s appeal was denied.
As a result of this decision, basic cable rates are no longer regulated in Massachusetts. DTC was one of the last state agencies in the country to maintain any form of cable rate regulation.