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from: Sun Sentinel

Titans battle for control of cable TV in Florida

By Josh Hafenbrack
Tallahassee Bureau

April 28, 2007

TALLAHASSEE · They've broadcast their talking points in campaign-style commercials, using the TV screens they're fighting over to argue about who offers the best deal for Florida cable customers.

from: TampaBay.com

April 27, 2007
Cable and Telecoms Come to Agreements

With only three dissents, senators adopted the well-lobbied cable bill making it easier for telephone companies to enter the cable TV market.

What started this session as a battle between cable and local goverments on one side and telephone companies on the other ended with local governments out in the cold, unable to even govern utilities' access to their right-of-ways under the terms of the bill.

Note: In a multi-billion dollar Florida cable market, 50K a month amounts to little more than a parking ticket. Red-lining violations should be met with the revoking of the franchise agreement. This is nothing more than a Republican white collar legislator writing an amendment to protect white collar criminals.

from: Bradenton.com

from: Palm Beach Post

Phone cable plan touted as boon, feared as bias

By Kristi E. Swartz

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

TALLAHASSEE — Beverly Campbell said mortgage lenders and pizza delivery guys already bypass her Pine Hills neighborhood in west Orlando.

from: St. Petersburg Times

Cable bill loses a critical clause

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published April 25, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - In the telephone industry's multimillion-dollar battle for access to Florida's TV market, cable companies and consumer groups suffered a serious blow Tuesday.

from: The Ledger

Cable Bill Clears Senate Panel
Plan would make it easier for telephone companies to offer television service.

By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Ledger Tallahassee Bureau

Published Wednesday, April 25, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - A bill that would make it easier for phone companies to offer cable television services cleared its last Senate committee Tuesday, setting up a final floor fight later this week that will decide the fate of the proposal.

from: Palm Beach Post

Phone cable plan touted as boon, feared as bias

By Kristi E. Swartz

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

TALLAHASSEE — Beverly Campbell said mortgage lenders and pizza delivery guys already bypass her Pine Hills neighborhood in west Orlando.

from: Miami Herald

Phone-cable bill is on the line
What began as a consumer-friendly proposal tacked to the cable-video franchising bill to keep basic local phone rates from rising could ultimately end up sinking the legislation.

BY MONICA HATCHER
mhatcher@MiamiHerald.com

TALLAHASSEE
After the Consumer Choice Act failed to pass the Legislature last year, local phone companies hoping to break into the cable-television business figured they'd improve the cable-franchise bill's chances this year by throwing in a bonus for consumers.

from: Ocala.com

Cable fight now 3-way free-for-all
Telephone, cable firms go on lobbying blitz

BY LLOYD DUNKELBERGER
STAR-BANNER TALLAHASSEE BUREAU
TALLAHASSEE - Cable companies are using the television airwaves to lobby against a bill that would make it easy for phone companies to compete in the cable market.

from: Daytona Beach News Journal

New Legislation, Same Old Phone Company

April 23, 2007
By Brad Ashwell

Among the things that never seem to change in Florida: The Gators and Seminoles will always feud and our local Bell phone company will always be lobbying Tallahassee for a new rate hike, deregulation bill or clever tax loophole.