Michigan's oversight of cable TV firms shuts off in '16

Bill Laitner | Detroit Free Press

Even more than the IRS and Ohio State, Michiganders love to hate their cable TV providers. “Honestly, I haven’t heard anybody say they like their cable company,” said Linda Krieger, 71, of Oak Park.

The monthly tab keeps going up, “and if the cable goes out, you have to call over and over again,” said Krieger. “We’re senior citizens, and we don’t know how to fix it. So, if they send you a new cable box, then they charge you to hook it up,” she said.

Krieger pays $157 a month for cable TV, Internet and phone connections through Comcast, “and I know it’s going to go up,” she said, with a sigh of resignation.

Mary Beer said she has switched cable firms three times in three years.



“I had Comcast, but they kept raising the price, so I switched to WOW — nice people, bad service,” said Beer, 59, of Royal Oak.

Seven months ago, she switched again. This time, she’s with AT&T’s U-verse system for cable TV and internet.

“So far, so good,” she said, while aware that — when it comes to cable TV — “you’re kind of at their mercy.”

And soon, Michiganders will be even more vulnerable to cable companies’ caprice, for everything from drooping cables in backyards to skyrocketing bills to inexplicable gaps in service. After decades of seeing their state’s consumer protection laws dismantled or rendered toothless, Michigan’s cable TV viewers will be on their own, as well.

At midnight, a section of state law will expire, cutting off funds that regulators had used for cable TV oversight.

“It’s not funded so it’s going away — the Legislature did not take this up to extend it,” said Judy Palnau, spokeswoman for the Michigan Public Service Commission, which regulates power and natural gas providers and other utilities.

The provision for state oversight by the MPSC dates to 2009, but it was set up with a clause that made it expire unless state lawmakers renewed it, Palnau said.

They didn’t renew because “the thought here is that cable TV is just like the telephone business — there’s so much competition now, you can take your business elsewhere” if the service or cost of a given cable TV provider is unacceptable, she said.

“And you can also contact the provider directly. They have those 800 numbers” on monthly bills, Palnau added.

But her assurances don’t satisfy consumer advocates, including the head of a watchdog group, and those in charge of cable-TV commissions in Dearborn, West Bloomfield and Ingham County’s Meridian Township.

'Erosion of ... protection'

Cable TV service has long been a thorny issue in Michigan, as rates soared while customer service often languished. Because competition in the early days was limited — giving a monopoly to one provider in some communities — most cable viewers had to live with soaring fees or live without cable TV, but they had a special option for resolving complaints: the state.

When it came to disputes involving such things as improper billing or unresolved service problems, they could turn to the MPSC.

Each January, the MPSC sends a report to the governor, telling how many complaints the agency received in the previous year from cable TV subscribers. The number has risen steadily as consumers learned about the MPSC's role. In 2011, the state logged 757 complaints; in 2012, it received 880; in 2013, the figure was 1,229 and in 2014, it rose 28% to 1,574, according to the report sent to Gov. Rick Snyder on Jan. 15.

The state estimates there are 2.3 million cable TV subscribers.

The report, also addressed to the Michigan House of Representatives and state Senate, recommended that funding of $1 million a year be continued into 2016, to keep alive the MPSC's watchdog role. Instead, state lawmakers let that role end. The $1 million was spent on mediating disagreements involving cable providers and customers and municipalities, and those between cable providers. The $1 million came from fees the state assessed on all cable providers, which are then passed on to consumers.

“All that is going away,” said Bill Irving, assistant city attorney for Dearborn and chair of PROTEC, a statewide organization that advocates on behalf of cities and townships on issues regarding utilities.

PROTEC — also called the Michigan Coalition to Protect Rights-of-Way — has more than 50 municipal members, including the cities of Dearborn, Livonia and Southfield, that negotiate with cable companies over operating contacts in their communities.



Irving is unhappy to see the MPSC drop its regulatory power over cable TV companies, not only because state regulators have backed up Michigan consumers for the last decade, but also because they’ve backed up cities and townships, he said.



As for the MPSC’s argument that competition is sufficient now in Michigan to assure cable customers of good service and reasonable pricing, Detroit-based attorney Mike Watza begs to differ.



“They say there’s a lot of competition? Let’s test that. The fact is, if you pick up the phone or the Internet right now and try to get cable TV service to your home, you won’t find much competition,” said Watza, who as general counsel for PROTEC has often faced off against cable companies in courtrooms.

“You’ve got a lot of people in condos, apartments. Oftentimes, they only have one provider because the building owner decided for them,” Irvin added.



“This is just more erosion of consumer protection in Michigan. There was a time when we had very strong consumer protection, and this is just further diminishing it,” said Watza, who is with the regional law firm Kitch Drutchas Wagner Valitutti & Sherbrook.

Cable companies respond

Many communities have a patchwork of cable coverage that offers more competition here, less there. For example, in the cable broadcast area of the Greater West Bloomfield Cable Communications Commission, some areas offer a choice between AT&T and Comcast, but in others, only Comcast is available, said Dave Albery, executive director of the commission.



The commission’s reception area is West Bloomfield, Keego Harbor, Orchard Lake and Sylvan Lake, comprising about 25,000 customers between the two companies (AT&T and Comcast) in the four communities, Albery said.

Asked about the MPSC dropping its oversight of cable TV, a Comcast spokeswoman said that her company had “just learned about this” and wasn’t ready to comment directly.

But Michelle Gilbert, vice president of public relations for Comcast in Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky, said the company recently redoubled its efforts to provide good service in Michigan, where Comcast planned to add 400 call center representatives in 2016 to its workforce of 4,400 employees.

“Plus, we’ll be adding technical and supervisor people, too,” Gilbert said.

In the past, “We have been challenged with some customer service reputation issues. We didn’t earn a negative reputation overnight, so we won’t overcome that overnight,” she said.

Comcast has 1.25 million subscribers in Michigan, with about 75% of them in southeast Michigan, she added. She said that customers with a problem — ranging from questions about a bill to a need for help in trouble-shooting a problem with TV reception — can call Comcast’s toll-free number on invoices.

Also, many turn to Twitter and Facebook “to reach out to us for assistance,” she said.

In Washington, the vice president for communication at the National Cable Television Association declined to comment about the MPSC ending its regulation of cable TV.

The head of a nationwide consumer group, the American Consumer Council, said he was disappointed to see Michigan drop cable TV oversight by the state.

"The ACC feels that deregulation is a major mistake and puts consumers at a serious disadvantage," said Thomas Hinton, president and CEO of the San Diego-based organization. Among the reasons? Widespread competition hasn't materialized in Michigan, promised jobs haven't, either, and bills in the Legislature to address those issues haven't moved, Hinton said.

The cable industry enjoys a monopoly or near-monopoly status in Michigan and most other states, "and therefore, it should be treated as a utility — regulated and overseen by the state," he said.

Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com or 313-223-4485