National TV franchise and “net neutrality”

National TV franchise and “net neutrality”

In the US, telcos will be able to roll out TV services without negotiating for months with thousands of localities for approval. The House passed a bill that would create a telco-advocated national video-franchise system in the United States. The national franchise is particularly opposed by cable TV operators, which have the most to lose from telcos entering the video market (ATT, Verizon, ..), but can also have a negative impact on satellite TV operators such as DirecTV or EchoStar, which currently provide the video service of RBOC' s triple-play offerings to consumers. The national TV franchise is an important step and should have important impacts on cutting marketing and lobbying costs, speeding triple play deployments, increasing competition in the video market and driving down prices. The bill had another interesting item (authorizing charging Web sites new fees for priority or guaranteed delivery of their content) that has been rejected. At least for a while, “net neutrality” is maintained.