Comcast was required recently to make some public relations enhancements in exchange for the Warner Brothers purchase agreement. In the Philadelphia viewing area, the result was that Comcast will service any low income household with school age children for less than ten dollars a month.
About five years ago, under Governor Corzine, New Jersey instituted a tax on cable companies which was to be put into a fund to provide a television subsidy to low income seniors and disabled residents.
When the fund got to $9.2 million, it was put into the General Fund by present Governor Christie and siphoned off to offset the State's budget deficit.
The end result is that many New Jersey senior citizens and disabled residents have had to drop service since they do not have enough discretionary income to cover the cost of cable television.
The government mandate to switch from analog to digital signal a year ago has not been a good thing for low income residents. It was enormous market potential for cable and network providers. Each digital channel can be broken up into many sub-channels so advertising and the variety of programming is potentially extremely profitable.
The hapless low income person who cannot afford to update electronics cannot use the present digital broadcast signal. The only options are to purchase a expensive digital receiver or to sign on with a cable provider.
This is a good time for Comcast to lead the way and make up the difference.
For those New Jersey residents who have been caught short by present Social Security freezes, a subsidy like that proposed for Philadelphia subscribers would mean being able to follow news, weather and emergency reports and, for many elders, would likely be their only form of entertainment.
Seniors rock.
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