The right metric must be used:

• The price of analog video service is no longer a relevant metric in today’s digital world in which over 60 percent of cable customers have chosen to subscribe to a digital cable package.  More than 50% of customers of the five largest MSOs subscribe to at least two services which provide significant savings for subscribing to multiple products.

Cable rates have declined:

• Bernstein Research notes: “Taking into account the increased amount of time U.S. households spend watching television, and the fact that cable's share of total television viewing has increased, the real price of an hour of cable TV has actually declined by an inflation-adjusted 26% over the past 10 years.” 
• Cable’s bundle of video, high-speed Internet and phone services is 31% cheaper today, on an inflation-adjusted basis, than 12 years ago.

Competition thrives:

• Competition in the multichannel video marketplace is intense as most consumers have the option of at least three – and often four or five – video providers.  One in three viewers now chooses a provider other than the local cable operator. 
• Some of cable’s competitors have raised their prices significantly over the past two years, including FiOS TV service increasing rates by 25.7% for a three-TV household and DirecTV’s Choice service increasing 17.1% for new subscribers.  Between 2006 and 2008, the price of Verizon’s most popular programming tier increased three times more than cable, and Direct TV’s increased twice as much.

Cable is a tremendous value:

• Bernstein Research notes: “The cost of an hour of cable has also declined on a relative basis versus competing forms of entertainment, including movies, DVD purchases, DVD rentals, and even the Internet.”
• Cable’s video service is a tremendous entertainment value, costing just pennies for every hour of viewing.  By using the Price Per Viewing Hour (PPVH) metric – most relevant because it measures actual usage of the service – consumers who subscribed to expanded basic service in 2007 paid just 13.9 cents per viewing hour.  Cable’s nominal PPVH has risen very little over the last decade – in 1997, the PPVH was 10.1 cents for expanded basic and 14.2 cents for digital.

People are spending more time watching cable programming:

• Bernstein Research reports: “Between 1997 and 2007, ad-supported cable's share of total television viewing steadily increased from 32.7% to 51.4% - which, when combined with the increase in the number of total hours of television watched daily, has  resulted in a nearly 80% increase in the number of cable hours viewed daily per household over the last 10 years (currently at ~4.2 hours/day), versus a 23% decline in the number of broadcast hours viewed daily over the same timeframe (currently at ~3 hours/day).  This increased consumption of cable qualitatively attests to cable's enhanced value over time (or at least the relative value of Pay TV versus "free" over-the-air broadcast).”

Video service has dramatically improved:

• With the introduction of digital, HD and interactivity, video offerings have changed dramatically since the mid-1990s and consumers now have more choice than ever before.  With hundreds of programming options, better picture and sound quality and the proliferation of exciting new interactive services, today’s video service hardly resembles the service available ten years ago.

Cable broadband performance (speed) has improved consistently over time:

• Broadband speeds delivered by cable have been steadily rising over the years.  While prices have more or less remained unchanged, the typical speed of cable broadband service has risen from 1.5 Mbps, to 3 Mbps to 6 Mbps, and some providers now offer 12-15 Mbps as the standard level of cable broadband service.