SHORT TAKES : FCC Studies Cable Competition

Cable television may need competition at the local level, the Federal Communications Commission said today in deciding to study possible changes in rules that allow just one cable system in most communities.

The commission, in a 4-0 vote, said the study of competition in the cable industry was required by “changed circumstances in the video marketplace” since Congress passed the 1984 Cable Act.

That act said there need be only one cable system in any community served by three or more broadcast stations. That, plus local franchise agreements that would be unaffected by changes in FCC rules, has meant most communities now have only one cable system.

So many customers have subscribed to cable that it now is the primary way viewers watch television in the United States. Consumer-interest groups and critics in Congress worry about cable’s increasing power in the marketplace, while customers increasingly complain of high prices but poor service.

Thursday’s action was the second major cable re-regulatory initiative the FCC has launched in a month as pressure builds in the government to rein in what cable’s harshest critics call an unregulated monopoly.