The goals of this dissertation are to provide an empirical examination of the impact of competing technologies on cable television firms and to document existing pricing behavior in the cable and pay programming industry. The introduction provides a brief overview of the cable television industry, including the impact of cable on federal policy goals and of federal regulations on cable operators. Chapter 2 summarizes the present structure of cable television regulation by discussing franchise fees, rate regulation, ownership restrictions, regulatory parity, franchise renewal, and mandated lease access. Federal policy goals and how they are impacted by the economic structure of the video industry are documented in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 discusses the evolving price structure in the cable industry and its implications for federal policy goals. Chapter 5 provides an empirical examination of the impact of competing technologies on the cable television industry, and Chapter 6 presents conclusions and policy implications. Appendices contain an explanation of the modelling approaches utilized in the text and six data tables; a bibliography is included. (JB)