ACA's Polka on Cable: "As a business, its failing"

That headline is not likely to shock anyone who provides cable TV service. 

Matt Polka, CEO of the American Cable Association and advocate for small cable operators across the nation, made those comments during the taping of an episode of "The Communicators" on CSPAN.  As outlined in an article on Ars Technica, Polka's comments seem obvious to those involved in cable, but are probably not well understood by consumers. 

"The cable business isn't what it used to be because of the high costs," Polka said, pointing to the amount cable TV companies pay programmers for sports, broadcast programming via retransmission consent fees, and other programming.

As a whole, the cable industry has done a poor job of communicating with customers about the financial strains they are experiencing. And when operators do complain about rising programming costs as the reason for rate increases, consumers see it as an excuse for "gouging" them.  Indeed cable companies have been their own worst enemy by providing bad customer service and then expecting their customers to believe them.

However, small community-based providers generally have a much higher trust level with their customers. It makes sense for providers to talk to their customers in an honest and open way about why their cable bills are going up.