Cable TV and the Need for Regulation

Amen to the people who say we need more regulation of cable TV!

I’ve lived in Brea for more than a year, and even though the reception is substandard, the price of cable is outrageous. For more than $25 per month, I’d receive channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 28, 50 and America Movie Classics. That’s it! If I spring for more than $30 per month, then I’d get what everyone calls “basic” cable. Every time a cable offer is broadcast on TV, I call, only to be informed that the company serving Brea has opted not to participate.

When I lived in Lancaster, the cable company wouldn’t even hook us up! We were 60 feet from their cable on the telephone poles but were told that our street hadn’t been wired into the system. Ever try to get TV in Lancaster via an antenna?

National Cable Television Assn. president James Mooney was quoted in your article (Nov. 21) saying that the average, basic cable subscriber gets 32 channels for 50 cents a day.

Where? In Brea, we’d pay over $1 per day for basic. I’d wager that’s among the top 2% of all companies.

The problem here is monopolization. When the phone company was a monopoly, it was regulated and the prices were fair. Cable TV is an unregulated monopoly and the prices reflect the gouging that is going on. If regulation is not in the cards, then one-year contracts should be the norm.

MICHAEL V. STRATTON

Brea