FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 2014
TVfreedom.org to Consumer Groups: Join Us in Fighting Abusive Pay-TV Practices
In an Open Letter, TVfreedom.org Asks Eight Top Public Interest Groups to Establish Open and Collaborative Process to Ultimately Bring Consumer Relief on Their Rising Monthly Pay-TV Bills
Washington, D.C. – TVfreedom.org today called on eight public interest groups to join the organization in developing an open and collaborative process that will place a public spotlight on the abusive billing and business practices being undertaken by the cable and satellite TV industry that are harming consumers. TVfreedom.org looks forward to establishing an ongoing dialogue with each of the organizations addressed in its open letter, including: Public Knowledge, Free Press, Consumers Union, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, New America Foundation, National Consumer League and Public Citizen.
“We hope to fight together to end the abusive video marketplace practices harming consumers,” said TVfreedom spokesman, Robert C. Kenny. “Parts of the marketplace are broken, and we believe it is time for the federal government to adopt and implement a series of policy and regulatory reforms that will ultimately bring relief to consumers on their rising monthly pay-TV bills.”
The letter states that the lack of competition and consumer choice in the U.S. video marketplace, coupled with lax federal oversight of cable and satellite TV operators’ pricing and billing practices, raises significant public interest concerns.
TVfreedom.org believes that, collectively, the organizations share common ground in the following areas of concern related to the pay-TV industry:
• Cumbersome and hard-to-understand Truth-in-Billing (TIB) updates;
• Overbilling (ongoing charges that consumers should not be paying for);
• Excessive equipment rental fees;
• Hidden “below-the-line” fees;
• Punitive early termination fees; and
• Unnecessary “change-of-service” fees.
“Existing piecemeal advocacy in this area has fallen short in generating any significant pressure on pay-TV operators to modify their behavior, expand networks further into rural America, or advance the economic and social interests of their customers,” Kenny said. “As a result, consumer choice for video service across the country remains limited, and family budgets must bear the heavy financial burden of ever-escalating monthly pay-TV bills.”
The letter notes that Consumers Union has, through various surveys, repeatedly highlighted the frustration that consumers experience from inferior service quality, poor customer service and lack of transparency on monthly cable and satellite TV bills. Pay-TV operators’ poor ratings reflect a marketplace where dissatisfied customers are subject to excessive fees for service termination and limited local options for alternative competitive video service.
In its most recent analysis earlier this year, Consumers Union said that consumers’ monthly cable and satellite TV bills have increased at double the rate of inflation in each of the past 15 years through 2012. According to the NPD Group, consumers today are paying, on average, nearly $90 per month for pay-TV service, with expected monthly bills of $200 per month on the horizon by 2020 if current market trends continue.
TVfreedom.org said given the significant negative impact these abusive billing and business practices have on consumers, its 27-member coalition seeks to press pay-TV operators to enlighten the public on the controls they have in place to identify and self-correct billing errors, subpar service quality and corporate policies that negatively impact their customers.
“We believe a collaborative effort on the part of our respective organizations would renew and reinvigorate debate on how to best modernize the regulatory landscape and bring an end to the abusive billing and business practices in the video marketplace that the cable and satellite TV industry appear unwilling or unable to self-correct,” Kenny concluded in the letter.
See TVfreedom.org’s open letter to the eight public interest groups here: http://www.tvfreedom.org/docs/TVfreedom_LOC_Letter_043014.pdf
About Us
TVfreedom.org, is a coalition of local broadcasters, community advocates, network television affiliate associations, multicast networks, manufacturers and other independent broadcaster-related organizations committed to helping protect consumer interests, ensure emergency and weather related programming access, promote the value of broadcast-TV programming, and preserve a fair and free video marketplace. In the coming weeks and months, the coalition will look to add to its charter membership and will work closely with consumer and community groups, as well as public safety and law enforcement organizations.