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Speaker 1: June is the Brexit vote. It's also the day where

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Speaker 1: we all pick ourselves off the floor laughing hysterically. Is

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Speaker 1: cable TV providers testified a Congress about customer service and

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Speaker 1: building practices? The comedy act that is Lydia. It is

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Speaker 1: with Bloomberg, B and A where she writes detailed, hyper

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Speaker 1: detailed reports on this comedy. Come on, Lydia, the only

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Speaker 1: one that's not going to be looking at the Brexit vote.

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Speaker 1: These guys are gonna go in front of Congress and

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Speaker 1: say they give customer services out I'm hearing, Well, what's

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Speaker 1: happening is uh the Senate Permanent Subcommittee for Investigations launched

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Speaker 1: some subpoenas and investigation last year into all the major

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Speaker 1: cable and TV companies you know, and uh, finally a

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Speaker 1: year later, they're getting their hearing. And yes, they're probably

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Speaker 1: going to say that they offer good customer service, that

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Speaker 1: they faced uh tough financial times that are leading to

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Speaker 1: rising rates and cording and chord shaving is contributing to that.

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Speaker 1: But you can guess that Senator Claire mccaskell, who's a

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Speaker 1: Democrat from the Zouries kind of leading this investigation, uh,

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Speaker 1: and is hearing, although it's been pitched as a bipartisan

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Speaker 1: effort with the sub committee's chairman, Rob Portman, who's a

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Speaker 1: Republican from Oria, and she has been after PayTV companies

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Speaker 1: for a while now, asking consumers to write into her

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Speaker 1: office with complaints. So yes, she's gonna have a lot

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Speaker 1: of ammunition. I know that Fortress Roberts was a mediocre

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Speaker 1: stock for X number of years. In the last decade

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Speaker 1: they have enjoyed total return per year twelve point nine

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Speaker 1: seven percent with dividends reinvested. Is that a utility performance?

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to comment on that, but uh, and

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure that that will be the focus of

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Speaker 1: the hearing. Uh. However, some of the cable companies are

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Speaker 1: satellite companies in my be making that argument that due

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Speaker 1: to government regulations and what's happening in the marketplace, that

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Speaker 1: they're facing a really tough environment where they're they're probably

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Speaker 1: going to say they're not making the sort of revenues

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Speaker 1: that they use and they're probably probably gonna ask for

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Speaker 1: lighter regulation. The folks at Charter Communications are going to

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Speaker 1: be testifying their um. They likely to come up and say,

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Speaker 1: give us some time, because we just bought Time Warner,

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Speaker 1: and uh, we can change they've they've changed the name Spectrum.

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Speaker 1: Can they change the perception of their service? You know

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Speaker 1: a lot of companies in the PayTV space say that

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Speaker 1: Comcasting some of its behavior have cast a shadow over

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Speaker 1: the rest of the industry. So I don't know that

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Speaker 1: there will be any finger pointing. There might not be.

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Speaker 1: They might all be very nice, simple light up there

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Speaker 1: when they're testifying before the sub committee. But you may

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Speaker 1: hear some saying, you know, hey, don't cast us in

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Speaker 1: the same light as Comcast. Give us some rake. Look

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Speaker 1: at all these things that we've signed on to in

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Speaker 1: our merger agreement with federal agencies. We're going to try

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Speaker 1: and abide by this and offer customers better customer service.

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Speaker 1: We'll speaking of the cable companies, there's a petition you're

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Speaker 1: writing about to the Federal Communications Commission from public interest

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Speaker 1: groups are alleging that a T T. Cable Vision, Comcast

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Speaker 1: others are out there selling the data they have on

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Speaker 1: us without our permission. Right. So this is a petition

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Speaker 1: that was brought yesterday to the SEC and the Federal

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Speaker 1: Trade Commission, and they're asked actually asking the agencies to

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Speaker 1: take an enforcement action, which means bring a fine. Do

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Speaker 1: some do something here that would count for these companies.

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Speaker 1: The public interest groups say that the laws require for

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Speaker 1: companies to get consumers opt in consent, you know, prior

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Speaker 1: consent for how their data is used when it's collected

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Speaker 1: over your your cable box. And the companies pushed back immediately,

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Speaker 1: of course, and said, you know, we everything is disclosed.

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Speaker 1: We're perfectly behaving. Correct answer under the law. Um, this

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Speaker 1: could come up at the hearing. We're not sure and

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Speaker 1: we're not even sure at this point whether or not

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Speaker 1: either agency will will pursue an impress in action. Lydia,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much. Lidia Bloomberg b NA, looking at

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Speaker 1: your cable bill and your cable service