Nearly $4M spent to lobby cable issue

NASHVILLE (AP) ? AT&T says legislation that would ease its entry into the cable TV market is facing a harder battle in Tennessee than in other states, which is the telecommunication company?s explanation for why the issue has fueled the state?s most expensive lobbying effort of the year.

But cable TV company representatives say that?s just public relations spin in what has turned out to be a contentious state-by-state fight over whether to change how business is done in the lucrative field of cable and video services.

The legislative battle has led AT&T and others supporting the legislation to spend upward of $1.8 million on lobbying in the past six months. The cable TV companies and others fighting the measure have spent nearly $2 million on lobbying efforts, according to reports filed this week with the Tennessee Ethics Commission.

The reports, which disclose lobbying costs from Oct. 1 to March 31, show the ?Competitive Cable and Video Services Act? to be the single most expensive lobbying issue in the state this year. Disclosures due in November will show additional money spent between April 1 and the end of the legislative session, which isn’t expected to come before May 31.

AT&T claims the current system, which requires cable and video operators to do business directly with local governments, presents a barrier to more cable providers, and therefore more competition, entering the market.

AT&T is asking for a statewide franchise, where a company could apply with the Tennessee Regulatory Authority to do business in Tennessee and bypass local governments. The bills considered by other states are similar.

Cable companies contend that since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 overhauled communications law, neither AT&T nor other companies have had barriers to entering the cable and video market.

Local governments oppose the measure because a statewide licensing system would take away from them the power to negotiate franchise deals, secure municipal cable channels and impose local regulations.

The “Competitive Cable and Video Services Act” has been stuck in the commerce committees of both the Senate and the House since February as lawmakers and interested parties have wrangled over potential amendments and changes to the bill.

The $3.8 million represents what AT&T, pro-cable bill organization TV4US, the Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association and various cable providers have spent on lobbying, with AT&T and the Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association representing the largest share.

The semi-annual lobbying expenditure reports are among many new requirements of the comprehensive ethics reform act passed by the Tennessee Legislature in the wake of the arrests of five current or former lawmakers in the FBI’s Tennessee Waltz investigation into public corruption.