Cable Industry News
This is no time for new cable taxes
Tuesday, 30, March 2010
Tennesseans are struggling. As empty restaurant tables attest, as dwindling sports ticket sales demonstrate, and as anyone with common sense knows, tighter times mean less money for family entertainment.There remains, however, one genuinely affordable family entertainment value: Cable television. As other entertainment offerings raise prices for the same attractions, Tennessee's cable providers are adding choices: dozens of new high-definition channels, and thousands of hours of movies, news, sports, and more through video on-demand programming.
My industry is grateful for the 1.5 million Tennessee homes and businesses that connect to the world through their local cable television provider. This year, however, the state's proposed budget imposes $35 million in new cable taxes on them.It is just unfair and wrong to ask Tennessee's cable subscribers to pay new taxes now.The new sales tax proposed on cable, for example, won't reach cable companies. Unfortunately, it's a direct tax on our customers. Cable companies can't, by law, absorb the tax increase.
