KCTA Blog

March 5, 2013

Help Your Kids Watch What’s Appropriate For Them

We all know that raising happy, healthy, and productive children takes guidance, and requires establishing boundaries. We also know that we can’t watch over our children 24/7. The KCTA is committed to helping parents and caregivers control the media options within their homes. Enabling these “parental controls” adds insurance to knowing your child is watching appropriate programming.

The parental controls in your cable set-top box can block programs by channel, title, rating, or time and date. Pay-per-view and video on demand purchases can also be blocked. Most importantly, YOU get to decide what is appropriate for your child.

Using parental controls is easy! It all starts with your remote control. Just visit ControlYourTV.org and learn more about how to get started.

Another great tool to help you select programming that everyone in your family can enjoy is the TV Ratings system (aka the TV Parental Guidelines). The TV ratings help you gauge age appropriateness and use symbols to describe the content they contain.

To learn more about the TV Ratings, visit theTVBoss.org.

March 5, 2013

Fair and Reasonable Pole Attachment Rates for Unregulated Utilities Would Benefit Kentucky

Kentucky would benefit from fair and reasonable pole attachment rates for all the Commonwealth’s utilities. Fair and reasonable rates would protect the public from artificially high cable bills. Dependable and reliable rates would also give cable companies certainty about pole attachment expenses that would help them justify investing their own capital to deploy new telecommunications services needed for rural economic development. Using one fair method to determine all pole attachment rates would contribute to a business environment of fair competition which would benefit businesses and consumers.

Some Unregulated Utilities Charge Excessive Rates

At present the pole attachment rates determined by the Kentucky Public Service Commission’s fair and efficient rate methodology average $4.87 for each pole annually. In contrast the average pole attachment rate for an unregulated utility is $13.86. In some cases the rates of unregulated utilities can be as much as $21.64 per pole.

Artificially High Rates of Unregulated Poles Cause Serious Problems

  • Consumers suffer the costs of higher cable bills.
  • The expense of further deploying broadband and other new services is not feasible for attaching cable companies. The hardest hit areas are the Commonwealth’s rural areas which fall further behind in their access to the world through digital technology like cable TV, high speed broadband Internet and digital VoIP telephone service.
  • Some unregulated utilities, which also currently offer TV, Internet and telephone service, engage in unfair competition by pricing competing companies out of the market. They practice predatory pricing – charging competitors unreasonable rates for the delivery of their alternative services.

March 5, 2013

Report Cable Theft

Cable theft is a crime! Federal law [47 U.S.C. 553] states that No person shall intercept or receive or assist in receiving any communications service offered over a cable system, unless specifically authorized to do so by a cable operator or as may otherwise be specifically authorized by law. Violators of the law face possible fines and/or imprisonment.

Cable theft is not a victimless crime. Unauthorized reception of cable services can degrade the signal quality and integrity of an entire cable system. Law-abiding customers suffer as a result. Plus, the necessity for increased service calls and other system maintenance raises operating costs, which ultimately puts pressure on cable rates.

If you know of any instance of cable theft, you can report it by clicking CableTheft.com. You may also contact KCTA for assistance in dealing with the situation.