US might finally force cable-TV firms to advertise their actual prices - Ars Technica
arstechnica.com
As Biden noted, the FCC "proposed a new rule that would require cable and satellite TV providers to give consumers the all-in price for the service they're offering up front." The proposed rule would force companies like Comcast, Charter Spectrum, and DirecTV to publish more accurate prices.
If I had a dollar for every news article that talked about how such-and-such regulatory body "might" do something that benefits consumers over corporations, I could actually afford all those hidden fees.
While I would also pump the brakes a bit on any particular effort, the Biden administration is pushing back against the dominate thinking of "antitrust bad" that emerged in the 70s. I believe he's made a lot of appointments reflecting that, which hasn't happened since the Carter administration.
What kicked off that shift? Robert Bork's 1978 book The Antitrust Paradox, which is yes that Robert Bork. I honestly think people could use more knowledge about the sausage is made when it comes to government.
Borked again smdh
Let’s get pharma out of advertising too. NZ and USA are the only countries in the world to allow it.
No, a ton of others also allow it but there might be more more (or fewer) restrictions. But yes, advertising pharma products is pretty weird. Your doctor should proscribe your meds and you should not ask for something specific because an ad told you so. And many of those proscription free cold medicines are not really necessary or effective anyway.
They are the only ones for prescription medicine. I Germany there's also TV ads for medicine, but just for stuff you can just go and buy in a pharmacy.
Sweet, like 30 years to late and for a dying industry.
Yep this feels like little more than a publicity stunt so politicians can talk about how they're "reigning in cable companies" while the cable companies still get to gouge us with poor service, monopolies, and sky high pricing on internet service.
How about some real action, Democratic party? Enough with the lip service.
What was that? You want us to hammer on wedge issues some more? - the Democratic party
No kidding. Cable industry has already pushed more into their ISP sales.
I'll believe it when I see it. It seems like things like this come up all the time and never actually go anywhere.
Good, deceptive bastards!
Now do ticket prices.
Now do everything.
Australia recenlty rolled out some pretty simple "applies to everything" rules. Whatever price you advertise, you have to sell your product/service for that price.
You can only charge extra fees if those are optional fees for additional services on top of the product you've advertised. If they are mandatory fees, then you have to sell the product for the lowest price you've advertised. And you can be forced to issue partial refunds to every customer you've ever had who paid too much.
Agree. Those prices are crazy stupid.
Make them stop abusing their monopolies on internet to force you into bundling their trash ass TV service too.
One of the best decisions in my life was to drop cable/satellite and go pirate.
Even with a VPN, a Usenet sub, and multiple paid memberships to nzb indexers, it's still an exponentially better experience than cable.
Recently did this, there's some setup if you want it all automated (arr stack with nzbget and jellyfin+jellyseerr for me) but the end result is so worth it. Stremio and debrid are pretty nice for one offs too
Who has cable TV these days?
I miss mindless channel surfing
I don't miss the endless commercials.
Yeah it is so bad every time I visit my parents they get stuck in my head for weeks.
Plex has a nice selection of live channels.
Kodi with a Real Debrid and/or Easynews is far better option than any cable/streaming option we have.
Greater transparency under capitalism is always a good thing. I have to admit, one thing Trump did that I liked was to force hospitals to publish their prices. I can't think of a good reason people buying a thing shouldn't know how much it costs beforehand.
That was part of ACA/Obamacare my dude, Trump had no role in it and had vowed to repeal it but failed. 2718(e) of the Public Health Service Act.
I brought the sauce.