Posted on 11/29/2005 10:57:56 AM PST by devane617
The US cable industry on Tuesday faced the prospect of a radical overhaul of how it is regulated after the Federal Communications Commission said it supported proposals that could force cable companies to change the way they bundle and sell their channels in order to rein in indecent programming.
Kevin Martin, chairman of the communications watchdog, said he would urge cable companies to consider adopting a so-called à la carte pricing system, which would, in effect, allow consumers to pick the cable stations they want to subscribe to instead of having to choose between bundles of stations that are pre-set by the cable companies.
Mr Martin presented the proposal at a Senate meeting on indecency on TV as one of three “options” he thought would help combat the problem.
But he stopped short of calling on Congress to make the proposals mandatory and did not speculate on whether or not the FCC had the legal right to enforce the changes he presented.
Kyle McSlarrow, president of the National Cable Television Association, said technology, including the use of the v-chip, which allows parents to block some channels, was the best solution to the indecency issue, and that any government mandate on the topic would be a violation of the first amendment right to free speech.
Mr McSlarrow said an overhaul of the system was akin to forcing newspaper companies to sell sections of their papers separately simply because some consumers only read the sports sections.
The proposal by Mr Martin represents a significant reversal by the FCC, which last year, under the chairmanship of Michael Powell, concluded that the average American household would be forced to pay between 14 per cent and 30 per cent more each month on cable if they adopted an à la carte regime.
Mine will be gone near-instantaneously.
Good law. As it stands now, they give me the fag channel for free and I have to pay extra for Mystery.
CNN will definitely be gone from my pick list.
SPIKE will definitely stay.
I will cancel CNN, MSNBC, and other lefty channels, but my parental-block system works well enough.
And can you imagine what's gonna happen to MSNBC? Chrissy Matthews will end up on "community access" channels. Or go back to delivering newpapers.
I have a real problem paying for the CNN garbage. I want to choose which channels I receive and pay for.
There only a few channels I would want. And CNN isn't one of them.
is there any real chance that this could happen?
That's why this is such a big deal, and I doubt it will go through to completion. This law will close down many outlets. We will know the truth...
CNN will definitely be gone from my pick list.
SPIKE will definitely stay.
I would keep SPIKE and hopw they show more Max X and MXC. My boys and I love both of those shows.
DSC, TLC, HGTV, BBCA, WB, Local NBC, FOX News, FOX, NGEO. These are the only stations that I want to keep.
This wouldn't only be a problem for CNN....
Goodbye CNN, CNN Headline News, MSNBC, Bravo, those Gardening and Renovation channels, cartoon channel, and Home Shopping channels.
ala carte will kill MTV and VH-1, the underwritten (by all subscribers) advertising for the music industry. I betcha the Country Music station stays, tho. Goodbye CourtTV, E! and all of those shopping networks. Comedy channel iffy. CNN, MSNBC (poof).
imagine all the commercials and advertising youd start seeing for not just programs but whole channels. it would most likely lead to better programming overall.
Probably will not happen, because the cable companies would charge the same amount for 15 channels as viewers now pay for 60. The outcry would force the FCC to reverse the "anti-bundling" rules.
It wouldn't just be CNN (or Fox in the blue states). How many people are going to leave out Discovery and History? Those channels survive partly because they get packaged in with "fun" channels. I for one would be sad to see Mythbusters go.
I'd gladly pay more to stop the subsidies of stations I do not philosophically agree with or have no use for. Let them die and I'll partially pay for the funeral.
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