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 ...
Kick their stupid wires out of the public right of way, and off our HOA’s land. Or, they can offer what we want!
Do not agree.
I despise having to pay for Spanish language TV. Almost a dozen channels I am forced to pay for.
McCain, a day late and a dollar short.
Nothing because I don't waste my time or money on it now !
Money.
The cable company gets paid to carry channels that they offload onto the customer. They have FCC requirements. They have money in their eyes.
The only change this will do is allow for all companies to not have the FCC backing any longer.
Talk about no more sesame street hahahahaha.
TV will be Youtube on steroids. If there is a broadcaster of a poll dancing club no stopping from you watching...
Commercials will be worth watching.
Attention, Senator McCain! Your ship has sailed.
what i want is the ability of tv’s to mute and dim the screen when commercials come on. a user-menu option setting.
Thank God Congress is finally getting some work done instead of wasting time on Benghazi... [/sarc}
television needs to be free... let sponsors carry the load and charge the consumers for their advertising.
i am tired of paying thrice... once for the privilege of having the signal come into my house, and then having to watch commercials and THEN paying higher prices for things because of the cost of interrupting my programs.
and all those merchandise channels.
No place for gubmint to be nosing around.
Cause you don't have a DVR?
translation.. higher prices for popular channels like History and ESPN while they give away Telemundo and Logo..
please stay out..
If it does pass, I will discard akll the channels I don’t use or want
I think my Satelite provider will want to carry the blaze now that I will only have 10 channels....
It is. And I can't wait for it to happen.
Money.
The cable company gets paid to carry channels that they offload onto the customer. They have FCC requirements. They have money in their eyes.
The only change this will do is allow for all companies to not have the FCC backing any longer.
Talk about no more sesame street hahahahaha.
TV will be Youtube on steroids. If there is a broadcaster of a poll dancing club no stopping from you watching...
Commercials will be worth watching.
Yeah, I would LOVE to get the brainwashing that is PBS off my channel, they can air Doctor Who re-runs instead, and I might watch them, even if they have to add some commercials...
We should change PBS to KPBS, because they should pay their bills like everyone else... WNPR too
what i want is the ability of tv’s to mute and dim the screen when commercials come on. a user-menu option setting.
Heck I would settle for “half muted”
Something can be done. It’s called the Free Market.
Nobody is forcing you to pay for anything right?
If people don’t like the prices, ditch the service. Geez.
We live in a free country. Anytime the government touches
something it screws it up.
As to your assertion that we’d still be living with an ATT monopoly? I don’t think so. If something else comes along that’s cheaper and a better option people would have the freedom to switch.
We’re talking about a different animal if they’re getting government monies though.
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