Have you noticed that video rates have been going up at a painful rate? FCC Chair Kevin “I love Ma Bell” Martin did and he wants answers.

An agreement announced Tuesday between Sony Electronics and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) may mean the end of that ubiquitous TV appendage: the cable set-top box.

Banverket ICT (Information and Communication Technology), one of Sweden's largest suppliers of network capacity, is enabling Sweden's cable TV and other service providers, to deliver new multimedia services across the country with a Nortel [NYSE/TSX: NT] next-generation optical network solution.

DIRECTV has been ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Satellite/Cable TV Subscribers" in the Southern, Western and Eastern regions of the United States, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Residential Cable/Satellite TV Customer Satisfaction Study(SM). The three regions where DIRECTV ranked highest encompass 43 of the 48 contiguous states.

Consumers in parts of the Angola and Dover areas finally have a choice of cable TV providers, with the expansion of Verizon's FiOS TV. The recent rollout of this new service makes a broad range of programming choices and superior picture quality available to nearly 28,000 households in Angola and the unincorporated area of Dover.

Beginning today, consumers in Marion, Mattapoisett, Rockland and Westborough have more choice in cable TV providers now that Verizon has introduced FiOS TV, making a broad range of programming choices and superior picture quality available to some 17,000 more Massachusetts households.

An innovative, reliable and competitive alternative to cable TV is coming to more New York consumers as Verizon expands its industry-leading FiOS TV service, which is provided on the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network straight to customers' homes.