Cable: deregulation good for consumers; Ars: like heck it is

[Commentary] According to the cable industry, if the last 10 years have taught us anything, it's that the cable industry in the US is focused on openness, innovation, and customer satisfaction; but if we can't keep the government's knuckleheaded regulators out of our cable lines and off our Internet, cable's nearly absurd level of innovation will be throttled down more effectively than BitTorrent uploads on Comcast's network. Businesses don't always dislike regulation; if regulation throws up such stiff barriers to entry that new competitors rarely emerge, that's great for incumbents. And if you can "capture" your regulator in such a way that you have a cozy industry/government connection that doesn't rely on market forces or respond to customer pressure, that can work out pretty well, too. But in most other cases, businesses would prefer deregulation, the more the better. It's an idea that flourished in the last few decades, but regulatory enthusiasm is making a comeback. In the just-released new issue of The Atlantic, editors count down the "11½ Biggest Ideas of the Year," and number seven is "the return of regulation." Certainly deregulation has been good to cable. Consumers Union, the nonprofit that puts out Consumer Reports magazine, took a look at the results. Their conclusion? It led to much, MUCH higher prices.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080610-cable-deregulation-good-fo...