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Time Warner Wins Ohio-Wide Cable Franchise
An anonymous reader writes "Time Warner Cable has received a state-wide franchise agreement in Ohio. Time Warner's agreement covers 260 communities in 60 of Ohio's 88 counties, for 10 years. AT&T was the first to earn a state-wide franchise contract, after a law was passed in September that allowed operators to negotiate a single state-wide agreement. In the past operators negotiated franchise agreements at the local level."
I don't know the details of how things work in Ohio, but this may not be a 100% bad thing. In some areas local control results in only one cable company being allowed in a municipality. Removing local control eliminates the possibility of this monopoly -- according to TFA both Time Warner and AT&T are now allowed to do business in all areas of the state.
How about I insist on anti-corporate whining by pointing out that the state has basically just undermined local authorities' ability to negotiate better rates, service, etc. from Time Warner without the state actually getting negotiating power in return (except for the few bullet points in the press release)?
Previously, Time Warner (or whoever) would come to a "little rural hick town" (fuck you too, by the way) and have to negotiate with the community leaders. Maybe they'd be required to offer a few channels of cable access or public TV, maybe they'd have to agree to provide free internet service for public schools and libraries, whatever. No more! Now Ohio has done its citizens the great service of letting Time Warner give those local authorities the finger while pumping their service through a taxpayer-funded cable infrastructure largely built on municipal land.
The reason is that people are just wrong about what the article means. At first blush, it looked like the company was getting a statewide monopoly. After further reading, it appears that the first impression was wrong. People can be wrong, and we have to credit each other with the ability to assimilate new facts and adjust our opinions accordingly. That generosity will sometimes be found to be unrealistic, and that's fine, but to have a conversation untained with acrimonious, contemptuous comments, we have to at least try.