Amos Hostetter graduated from Harvard Business School in 1961 and convinced his employer, Boston-based Cambridge Capital, to finance a small cable television system in rural New Jersey.

FORBES: Amos Hostetter, Jr.

Moreover, in the few areas of America where one cable company has built over a rival's existing system, where a telephone company has set up an experimental system to deliver television signals, or where there is an old, municipally owned cable system as well as a private one, competition has led to lower prices (see chart).

ECONOMIST: Cable��s hold on America

Or they can help newcomers to switch by promising compatibility, as when cable-television companies offer to convert old televisions to the new system.

ECONOMIST: Economics Focus: Lock and key | The

In the case of television, the scarcity of spectrum, and the expense of building a cable system, have been additional justifications for regulating ownership.

ECONOMIST: The comfort of strangers