Christopher Shays: “We gave away cable franchises in the early 1970s and made millionaires out of cable franchise owners. In 1984, we…”

“We gave away cable franchises in the early 1970s and made millionaires out of cable franchise owners. In 1984, we deregulated and made billionaires out of these organizations. The argument that since deregulation bad things have happened to cable is simply not true. Their revenues have grown from 17 billion in 1990 to 25 billion in 1995. Their subscribers have grown from 54 million to 61 million during that same time period. Cable companies are making money. They are presently without competition. We should deregulate when we have competition, not before. That is the crux of this argument.”