What? Results wildly different than lobbyists promised? Surely you jest.

A new audit states that Wisconsin cable prices have risen 21% in the two years since an AT&T-backed lobby pushed through a bill which promised to lower rates.

Don't tell me you're shocked.

The Legislative Audit Bureau released a report today, as reported by The New York Times, showing that cable bills have gone up an average of 21% across Wisconsin since the Video Competition Act went into effect in 2008.  The bill, highly touted by the AT&T-backed lobby group TV4US, promised more competition and lower cable prices as a result.  

It only asked that local franchising authority and consumer protections be stripped away in the process, making it cheaper and easier for new providers -- hey, like AT&T, for example! -- to jump into the market.  When that happened, the existing companies would clearly have to drop prices to compete with new upstarts and that would be better for everyone, right?

Not so much.

Basic service rose 21.2% and expanded basic jumped 11.5% in the time since the magic bill was bestowed upon a trusting public.  Surely Wisconsin would buck the trend clearly proven in a University of Minnesota study, showing that 45 out of 47 states surveyed have seen cable prices rising.

Sure, it's impossible to truly know the effect of the bill when you take each providers' different offerings and bundling discount practices into account.   And yes, there has been a 35% increase in basic channels and 15% increase in expanded basic channels available in the past two years.  But it's obviously not the populist consumer-quelling, bill-shrinking wonder drug we were promised by astroturf "grassroots" TV4US movement of two years ago.

Maybe I'm having a hard time seeing the supposed benefits of the Video Competition Act with all this wool pulled over my eyes.  Rarely does a November come around when I don't write about Time Warner's latest yearly price increase, and I'm expecting we'll see another one from AT&T coming around soon as well.  Sure, there's all these incredible limited-time bundle offers out there, but the savings are fleeting at best.

Clearly, we've been had.  Back before the change in the law, Rep. Phil Montgomery (R-Ashwaubenon) said the bill ''will mean lower prices, better service, and increased consumer protection for cable and video subscribers.''  Apparently TV4US gave him a really comfy wool sweater too.  

One year ago, TV4US put out a press release praising the first anniversary of the bill, saying "Wisconsin consumers are already seeing reduced costs and better service," citing a Wisconsin State Journal editorial saying that competition was forcing Charter Communications to hold prices "lower than they otherwise would be."  

Two years ago, Thad Nation was executive director of the Wisconsin arm of TV4US and now heads up a Wisconsin technology lobby group.  Two years ago, Nation issued a press release saying the State Legislature "can vote to allow cable companies to compete for our business, which will lower prices, increase customer service, and result in new and better technologies. Or, they can vote to maintain the status quo, and watch the collective pocketbooks of Wisconsin consumers shrink. The State Legislature should pass this bill quickly, and help bring the benefits of cable competition to Wisconsin."

Now Nation says of the bill that ''increasing competition in the cable marketplace has always been about providing better value for customers and improving customer service.  No one expected all of those benefits overnight.''

Don't know about you, but I, for one, have never liked the costly, bitter aftertaste of snake oil.