Reason Foundation

A typical Illinois household with a cable subscription would save $103 a year due to lower prices, plus gain $12 a year in services valued over and above the amount paid for them, for total consumer benefits of $115 a year, according to an original analysis published this month by the Heartland Institute. If every community in Illinois were to become competitive, the benefit to consumers would total $316 million a year due to lower prices and $36.5 million due to increased consumption of desired services, for total annual consumer benefits of $352.5 million. The report was co-authored by James Speta, John Skorborg (who along with Heartland President Joe Bast) did most of the heavy-lifting, and myself. The report, The Consumer Benefits of Video Franchise Reform in Illinois, is available for download here.