About the Cable Industry in Washington

Washington's cable companies have been leaders as the cable industry has transformed itself from the supplier of a single product, analog video, into a competitive provider of multiple entertainment, information and telecommunications services.

In the last decade alone, these companies have invested more than $800 million to upgrade facilities and services. These upgrades have included replacement of old coaxial transmission lines with fiber optic cable, proliferation of high-speed Internet service, deployment of interactive and high definition television services, and the launch of Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) telephone service.

As a result, the cable industry now serves approximately 1.5 million Washington households with an ever-expanding menu of television, high-speed Internet and telephone services.

The industry is also a major economic force across the state, as it provides more than 4,000 family-wage jobs in large and small communities, and pays more than $90 million each year in state and local taxes and fees.

Cable operators must obtain a franchise from a city or county prior to offering local cable television service. In addition to spelling out the operator's payments of franchise fees and other local taxes, these franchise agreements may include a wide range of other requirements, such as obligations to serve; the provision of channel capacity for public, educational and government programming (PEG); construction of institutional networks to serve public agencies; enforcement of customer service standards; and rate regulation for the basic programming tier that includes all broadcast and PEG channels.

Cable companies provide Washington citizens with unique opportunities to see their federal, state and local governments in action. The C-SPAN networks are operated by a consortium of cable companies and include unedited coverage of congress and the executive branch of the federal government. At the state level, the cable industry has donated channel capacity to TVW, making its state government programming available to well over 90 percent of all cable households in Washington. Cable companies also provide channel capacity that allows local governments to televise their events and the state's institutions of higher education provide distance learning opportunities. Finally, public access channels are also provided for use by the general public.