Mad Money

MAD MONEY
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
All told, cable, phone and Internet companies in the first half of the year have spent more than $110 million on lobbyists, consultants, ad hoc advocacy groups, Web sites, billboards, print and TV advertisements trying to sway the voting and thinking of members of Congress. That nine-figure number does not include millions of dollars in campaign contributions doled out to House and Senate incumbents. Whether all the spending will actually result in new legislation won't be known for a few more weeks as Congress is expected to return the week of Nov. 13 for a post-election session. A Democratic takeover next January of the House or the Senate, or both, likely dooms any reform bill in the pending lame duck session, a senior Republican Senate Commerce Committee aide said. Major phone companies led the money race, ramping up spending in 2006 for the purpose of passing a law that would eliminate the need to negotiate cable franchises with thousands of local governments in order to deliver video services in any given community. AT&T, Verizon Communications, BellSouth and their trade group -- the United States Telecom Association -- and Qwest spent $30.3 million in the first half of 2006, according to lobbying expenditure reports that must be filed every six months with Congress. The $30.3 million was a 50% increase over the previous six months, when the legislative battle on Capitol Hill was just beginning to take shape. The NCTA, Comcast, Time Warner Inc., and Cox Enterprises spent nearly 60% less than the telephone industry in the first half of 2006. The big cable entities combined spent $12.2 million in the first half of 2006, a 37% jump over second-half 2005 spending. Cable companies increased their spending to counter the phone-industry lobbying on cable franchising. The fact that the NCTA, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox spent less than the phone companies may play to the maxim that it is less expensive to stop a bill than to pass one.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6383576.html