ACA to FCC: Smaller Cable Companies Are Shutting Down and Congress Should Know Why

The American Cable Association, which represents small, primarily rural, cable companies, is again asking the Federal Communications Commission to report on and study the closing of smaller cable systems, including why the closings occurred. Ninety-one cable systems serving more than 5,300 subscribers shut down in 2014, on top of 133 cable system shut-downs in 2013 and 129 shut-downs in 2012 that impacted more than 12,000 people, according to the ACA. Using data from the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC), the ACA reports that all told, since 2008, NCTC members have closed a total of 1,169 cable systems, affecting over 55K subscribers.

The filing comes as the FCC requested data for their “Annual Assessment of the Status of Competition in the Market for Delivery of Video Programming” report to Congress. “Assuming that current market trends for programming costs and multichannel video revenues continue, by 2020, video margins for smaller-scale MVPDs will turn negative,” says ACA in their filing. “As video margin erosion continues, ACA expects cable system closings will persist.” In the filing with the FCC, the ACA included a previously published report that links the important role that video plays in supporting broadband services and deployment.