minimal usa vpn competition

For  programmers, the distribution market is more national or regional; programmers can sell to more purchasers if different distributors operate, even in different towns. This national market is also highly concentrated. In 2006, four cable TV distributors, which included two satellite operators, served approximately 63 percent of all cable TV subscribers. The top 10 cable TV distributors served 87 percent of subscribers.12 The two largest were Comcast and Time Warner Cable.13 While the telephone companies have taken some share, the market remains highly concentrated.  This minimal usa vpn competition results in bad outcomes for consumers. Cable operators have the lowest consumer satisfaction ratings of any industry,14 even while they soak up large profit margins and raise prices.15 Some had predicted that the advent of competition from satellite and phone companies would decrease prices and increase quality.16  Programming. The programming market is also concentrated, with a few dominant programmers, both non-broadcasters and broadcasters.17 Large non-broadcast players, whose content is available only through a cable TV subscription, include Viacom (owner of MTV Networks, Comedy Central and others) and Time Warner, a content company that split off from Time Warner Cable, and owns TBS, TNT and CNN. Broadcasters, available both on cable TV and over-the-air, for free, include ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox.18 Programmers have high profit margins based on adding two revenue sources — advertising and per-subscriber fees. While programmers are sometimes "cagey" about their financials, the head of NBC's cable channels stated her channels' operating profit margins "are well over 50 percent."19Programming is often vertically integrated, with distributors owning programmers. In the FCC's last report in 2007 (which was before Time Warner's split from Time Warner Cable), the FCC found that of the 565 national non-broadcast channels it identified, many of the most popular were affiliated with a cable operator (84 channels total).20 Dozens more channels were affiliated with a satellite operator.21 At the time, five of the top seven cable operators held ownership interests in national programming networks.22