Locally Comcast offer a "basic cable" where you can get the local channels, shopping channels and a local whether channel plus WGN. It's only $15/month. It's OK in the summer time since I can get the braves baseball game son TBS and the cubs & white sox on WGN. I sometimes downgrade to that in the summer time.
I'm sure the cable companies would still offer some package deals that most people would still buy because they would be better deals, even with the garbage they don't watch. But many of us who don't want MTV or Spike in our homes would have an option. I get annoyed to even have the names of some of these sex-filled programs on the pay-per-view channels flashing on the screen while my kids are flipping channels.