Mark Fleischmann

The legislative silly season is barely underway but this year promises a bumper crop of whoppers. Arguably the biggest mistake about to be written into law is a national franchise agreement for telcos muscling their way into the video-delivery biz. Cable companies have to win municipal franchises that bring in money for local governments and give consumers at least an indirect stick with which to beat slovenly cable operators. They are also required to serve all paying households in their service areas. Now the telcos can compete with cable companies while remaining blissfully free of the local regulation that encourages your local cable op to serve every neighborhood and keep his nose clean. If you think your cable company is arrogant, wait till you've got one wire coming into your home from a company that doesn't have to play by the rules, be it AT&T or Verizon. The cable industry is crying foul, and let's face it, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Give due consideration to this heated position paper from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

You've probably seen those TV ads from cable operators claiming that their systems are fiber optic. The National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau has noticed that too--and the watchdog group is demanding that cable ops stop making such claims.

Two cable systems are trying new methods of movie distribution in an attempt to achieve same-day parity--or better--with DVD release and on-air broadcast dates.

Historically, made-for-cable programming has been just that. Cable operators used it to differentiate their service from broadcast networks. But you just might start seeing it online as early as this summer. Even more surprising, cable operators are leading the effort to put cable programming on the internet.