Group says money could instead be spent on improving Internet service

In an ongoing battle over who is responsible for rising cable TV bills, the American Cable Association is using an argument usually made against its industry in an attempt to rein in fees for airing ESPN and other programming.

The association said Tuesday it has asked the Federal Communications Commission to use its authority to prevent content providers from charging cable companies exorbitant programming fees. ACA argues the money spent on programming could instead be spent on infrastructure for broadband Internet, and therefore the commission has the ability to clamp down on fees because high-speed Internet services are not being provided to the public in a "reasonable and timely fashion" as mandated by Section 706 of the U.S. Telecommunications Act.

"If current trends continue, already high video programming fees will continue to escalate, causing the margins from traditional pay-TV service for smaller cable operators to shrink and then dry up within five years," ACA CEO Matthew Polka said. "The FCC must use its power to restore some semblance of sanity to the out-of-control video content market or broadband investment will suffer." http://bit.ly/1HRKomo

Ironically, a similar argument has been made against cable companies themselves by supporters of net neutrality, who say Netflix and other online media providers are the ones at risk of paying higher fees if cable companies decide to charge for additional bandwidth needed to stream videos. Section 706 has been used by the FCC in the past to justify its attempts to enforce net neutrality principles that cable companies oppose.

ACA's petition comes at a time when many consumers are dropping cable TV because of its growing cost. The Wall Street Journal recently estimated that the average programming fees for U.S. residents came to more than $28 a month per subscriber, with ESPN alone accounting for $6 of that amount.http://on.wsj.com/1PkLrAL