Posted on 05/09/2013 12:34:44 PM PDT by Teflonic
John McCain wants to unbundle cable and to stop broadcasters like CBS and Fox from moving their stations to pay TV. The Arizona senator right now on the Senate floor is introducing The TV Consumer Freedom Act of 2013 (read it here). The legislation is intended to “allow the consumer, the television viewer who subscribes to cable, to have à la carte capability. In other words, not required to buy a whole bunch of channels that that consumer may not want wish to subscribe to,” McCain said moments ago. The former GOP Presidential candidate also went after broadcasters like CBS and Fox who have said that they could move to cable if they lose in the courts against Barry Diller’s Aereo streaming service. “We’ll also establish consequences if broadcasters choose to downgrade their over-the-air service,” McCain told the Senate. His legislation would also eliminate the sports blackout rule “in events that are held in publicly financed stadiums.”
The proposal is expected to meet heavy resistance among the cable companies. ”Only Dish and Cablevision have been for a la carte and smaller bundles because we think it’s consumer-friendly”, Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen said during his company’s conference call today. “Having said that, there are five big groups that probably have enough clout in Congress to stop that legislation today. He added that “the marketplace is going to determine” if the price is too high. “There’s an awful lot of people who don’t consume (200 channels)”, he said, “and most of us would like to look for creative solutions”.
“This is unfair and wrong — especially when you consider how the regulatory deck is stacked in favor of industry and against the American consumer”, he said. “You can only do that when you have a monopoly”, he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at deadline.com ...
I dumped cable many years ago but something like this that would allow me to choose just the few channels I wanted likely would have prevented that. If this were to pass it may even end the liberal monopoly of television programming as consumers would have the power to drop the whole channel when they went too far.
It is a disaster in the making.
Gee, John, it’s the least you can do, seeing that the 1996 Telecommunications Act that you co-sponsored and rammed thru the Senate was perhaps the most corrupt piece of legislation ever considered before the Cornhusker Kickback came along.
Or are you just trying to make sure that Telemundo remains free-to-air?
agree, not a fan of the senator but I can get behind this.
My tv is off 99 percent of the time (hubby likes the occasional ball game)
And I would no longer have to pay to support BET, WE, OWN, CNN, PBS, etc.
On the surface this proposal seems a desireable change. I could drop some of the “bundle” I’m required to buy and pick up some stations I’m not allowed to have.
Why can’t they offer channels like Andorra?
I’m with you but....I really think this nation has bigger problems they should be addressing than this.
$10/channel or 200 channels for $100. Take your choice.
Yes! Yes, yes, yes. Its about time consumers were given the a la carte option. The only thing wrong here is this has John McCains fingerprints all over it. We're doomed. Even if this passes, McCain will screw it up.
We're doomed.
Explain please? I would think giving consumers the power to starve msnbc and gay propaganda channels out of business would be a good thing...
I would love to be able to buy only the channels I want, but I also say this is governmental overreach.
It will never pass. It would be the end of the big-four sports as we know it, as eight-figure, decade-long salaries and ten-figure sports deals depend on the hidden “taxation” of every cable and dish customer that goes via ESPN fees to the teams.
What do you think would happen to your cable bill?
I have never subscribed to cable because there are only a few, like the History Channel that I would want. So, $20 to $40 sounds like a winner to me.
I’m OK with this, as long as I can still get my two favorite channels “OWN” and “Sundance”. /s
With all the problems in this nation, this is all that John could find to fix. Sure there are some problems here... what are they 10,897th on the list of important things to do?
He thinks this will be a popular stance for him.
It just makes me despise the man all the more.
Arizona, in 2010 you folks sucked hind tit!!!!
Definitely Option one. It defunds the problem.
Bigtime. I can only surmise, as we nonchalantly breach Article 1 Section 8 one more time, that there is some further roadway to government takeover of yet another industry.
$10/channel or 200 channels for $100. Take your choice.
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Isn’t Mccain just pissing up a rope here? Aren’t cable and satelite TV providers going the way of typewriters and print newspapers?
I welcome Netflix and internet TV options. I’ll download and buy my TV shows for $0.99 just I buy my music.
Explain please? I would think giving consumers the power to starve msnbc and gay propaganda channels out of business would be a good thing...
I liek the idea, hate how it will be executed by FORCING the private businesses to do that, I would rather have it say that the private companies are to be forced to do this if they take any government monies...
Gov and telecom are in the same crony state as many other big businesses...
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