Just because a government is close at hand doesn't mean that it's any more friendly to the consumer than a more distant government, and sometimes the more distant government manages to do the right thing.

The latest example comes from Wisconsin, where the state government has enacted cable TV franchise reform. A new law, says the Minneapolis Fed, allows "the state to issue franchises for telecommunication firms to offer services anywhere in the state. Previously, such television franchise agreements were the purview of cable companies and local governments. The law is intended to ease local entry for new telecom operators to compete for customers."

Sounds like a good idea, right? Who would object? Local governments, of course. And a very few number of people who produce those TV shows with a minuscule audience. "The law is not without its critics, most of whom point out that local access channels will likely be eliminated with state-wide charters because local franchise agreements typically required such offerings."

I've got four such channels on my lineup, one of which always seems to be be showing the same square dance troupe over and over. The existence of local access channels is yet another piece of evidence that regulations often serve to benefit a few (usually politically connected) individuals rather than the public at large.

The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute , by the way, says that "New technologies in video service have rendered the justification for municipal cable franchises obsolete."