The four main cable operators in Los Angeles are expected to set the stage for franchise-renewal negotiations as they explain to the city's board of Information Technology Agency today how drastically competition has increased within the video and broadband industries. While the presentation is not directly related to renewal negotiations, the operators will try to show the recently appointed board why the city needs to loosen its regulatory grip, said Steve Fowler, VP/GM of Cox Communications in Los Angeles.

?When we made these agreements, we weren't in a competitive market,? Fowler said ?Now with the DBS [direct-broadcast-satellite] issues and DSL [direct-subscriber-line] issues, we need to make sure that our partners in this do not so adversely burden us as an industry so we are not able to compete.? One heavy burden Cox would like lifted is the requirement to provide public, education and government (or PEG) access channels, he explained.

Back to this issue