Projo Biz Blog

A state utilities regulator has decided that financial data and customer counts submitted by cable television companies in Rhode Island are no longer public information and has declined release the figures as requested by The Providence Journal.

Thomas F. Ahern, administrator of the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, upheld an earlier decision by Eric Palazzo, associate administrator of cable television, not to release the information.

Cable television rules require cable companies operating in Rhode Island to submit to state regulators an annual report that includes how many customers the company has, as well as financial data, such as its balance sheet and income statements. This information has been available to the public for the past 25 years.

But this month, when the state’s three cable companies, Verizon Communications, Cox Communications and Full Channel Inc. filed their annual reports, they each requested, separately, that the state keep the subscriber count information secret. Cox also requested that its financial statements be withheld from public disclosure.

“This data is highly confidential and competitively sensitive,” Verizon wrote in a cover letter to its annual report. “It’s release would enable Verizon New England’s competitors to evaluate the success of Verizon’s FiOS TV strategies in response.”

Cox said in its annual report that releasing subscriber count and financial information “would cause substantial harm to Cox’s competitive position as a provider of cable service.”

Palazzo, expressing concern that disclosing the information could hurt competition between the cable companies, said that the information would no longer be disclosed by the state. “If they’re concerned, I’m concerned,” he said. “I want to make sure nothing impinges on choice” of cable companies that customers now have.

Ahern upheld that decision in an April 9 letter to The Journal.

“Pursuant to the Rhode Island Access to Public Records Act, the records you have requested do not constitute public records, and are therefore exempt from public disclosure,” wrote Thomas F. Ahern, administrator of the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, in a letter to a Providence Journal reporter.

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