US Sen. McCain working on 'a la carte' cable TV bill

[AngryAmish]

Source: Apple Insider

Senator John McCain is working on a legislative proposal that would, if enacted, significantly reshape the landscape of the broadcast and cable television markets by pressuring cable providers to allow their subscribers to choose which channels they want to pay for.

McCain (R-Ariz.) will reportedly introduce his legislation in the next few days, according to The Hill. The Arizona senator was formerly the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and has pushed similar legislation in the past to little effect.

McCain's bill would, in addition to urging cable providers toward a la carte pricing, ban the bundling of broadcast stations with cable channels owned by the same entities. This would, for example, keep Disney from requiring that cable providers pay for ESPN in order to carry ABC. The bill also puts an end to the sports blackout rule, which keeps companies from carrying a sports event if the game is blocked out locally.

Read more: http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/05/09/us-sen-mccain-working-on-a-la-carte-cable-tv-bill

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This is a good thing.

[Archae]

1. "This is a good thing..."

Which is why it'll never go any further than McCain's desk.

The cable company lobbies will have their whores kill it.

[jeff47]

38. The cable companies would love this

It's the content companies that would hate it.

Disney only gets "Disney Channel #6" on your cable line-up because they threaten to take away ABC and ESPN.

[Archae]

46. We might go back to cable channels that are as they are labeled.

The Learning Channel
Discovery
History Channel
etc...

[NewJeffCT]

2. meaning McCain will denounce it

if Obama decides to support this same idea.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. So true!

[zbdent]

4. The only chance it has of passing is if it's written by a Republican and pushed by Republcans ...

and thus, it won't mean merde ...

Personally, I'd love to stop paying for shopping channels, the Religion channels, and Faux ... but no ... that would hurt the "liberally-biased media's" profits.

[Maeve]

5. I would happily stop paying for sports channels

Never watch 'em, couldn't care less...and they take up a huge portion of the cable. And, oh, yeah...not a penny for Faux News!!!

[AngryAmish]

8. see below, I'm just the opposite!

But this is why I shouldn't have to pay for your shows and vice versa.

[Maeve]

12. Agreed--I'd trade every single sports channel for BBC America

Even if I do live in College Football Central (Columbus, Ohio, where people bleed scarlet & gray)

[RebelOne]

23. So would I, plus the religious and the Spanish channels. n/t

[Warpy]

30. Sports channels, bible TV and shopping channels

They can go along with Pox. Maybe kiddie channels, too, although they're good fare when you've got the flu and a temperature of 103F.

[LiberalFighter]

47. It would break my heart if bible tv and shopping channels became extinct.

LMAO

More people will be able to keep their money with those shows off the air.

[AngryAmish]

6. There really are only about a dozen channels I watch

ESPN, Comcast Sports, AMC, Golf Channel, The over the air stuff for sports. TNT for basketball during the playoffs.

I think we are the only people who do this but we do use the music channels sometimes but pandora would substitute. My kids watch disney jr on demand. My wife watches some reality channels.

I do not need the hunting channels, the jeebus channels, the news channels.

[okaawhatever]

21. You may not like this then because it was found that the sports channels are subsidized

by other channels. Regardless, most people are willing to pay for what they want, so i'm sure this is positive in the long run.

[tridim]

7. I'm kind of shocked that Google didn't manage to impliment a la carte

It would have been a perfect testbed.

McCain just wants a 24/7 Golden Girls/CSI (insert random city) channel. Good luck dude.

[gvstn]

15. McCain may get his wish

Going fro past precedent if NBC were to buy the Science channel it would shorten its name to SC and put everything on it BUT science. Then when viewers complain they say "oh, SC doesn't stand for Science Channel anymore".

They did a great job transitioning Court TV from live trial coverage and informative commentary to TruTV and non-stop Lizard Lick Towing and Parking Wars episodes. Dumbing down the audience--mission complete!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

22. And a Matlock channel.

[Warpy]

31. Naw, he wants the Military Channel and nothing else

If it's not military, he's not interested.

[MADem]

34. Golden Girls? Is that an ageist slam?

I like the Golden Girls--I think they're kinda funny and the humor holds up down the years.

[jeff47]

39. It's not Google or the cable companies stopping a-la-carte

It's the content companies.

Disney has a ton of very low rated channels on your cable service. The cable company doesn't want to carry them, but has to if they want ABC and ESPN.

[tridim]

41. Yea, I know. It's just that Google TV is brand new and they have some leverage with the networks.

That said, Google TV has far less home shopping and Jebus channels than the other players.

It would be nice if that doesn't change, but even if it does the software is open source. My first project will be to add a "Hide all crap channels" toggle to the program guide. I'm actually way too excited about an open source DVR and remote. One more month.

[AndyA]

9. I hope it happens

I get so many cable channels I NEVER watch. Don't care for professional sports, don't need children's programming, home shopping, religion, Faux News, etc.

People could choose to receive fewer channels, and pay less for them, but actually end up with more channels to watch.

First decent thing I've seen out of McCain in awhile.

[Liberalynn]

25. The ones you list you don't watch are the same ones that I don't watch.

I like the Science Channel, History 2, Animal Planet, HGTV, the Food Channel, USA, the Travel Channel and TNT. On occasion I like watching the train wreck that is Jersylicious on Style and sometimes I will watch Friends repeats on Nickolodeon and on odd occasion the Weather Channel. If something big is happening in the news I will turn on MSNBC or Headline News. At Christmas I watch the Hallmark movies, ABC Family, and Lifetime, the rest of the year not so much. So there is a lot that would be going off the air in my house.

I watch less than a handful of shows on Network TV now too.

I hope this bill passes but Deadline Hollywood said they are pretty sure it will get either straight out killed or gutted by the cable lobbies.

It still gives me the creeps too when I agree with Grampy McSame on anything.

[NickB79]

10. Then I could get rid of the 20 religious channels

That I have to scroll through to get to the Playbo....,er Discovery Channel.

[srican69]

11. Cant wait to get rid of fox ..

[Sherman A1]

13. I would like to see this happen, however

I wonder just what the pricing of the individual channels may be? I suspect it will be pretty hefty for the more popular ones, but I could really do without the sports, religious, home shopping, music and a few select other ones.

It will be interesting to see just how far this goes and how much money is tossed at DC to keep it from happening.

[liberal N proud]

16. That is the only thing that scares me about a la-carte

If I have to pay twice the price for less which is likely what will happen, then it will be a flop.

[CBGLuthier]

29. About six dollars per subscriber goes to ESPN now.

One of the main reasons I have not had cable for three years is the sheer idiocy of paying six dollars a month for a channel that I never watched.

[Posteritatis]

37. The pricing deals for them would probably be hideously predatory

The telcos would be under a lot of pressure to keep offering the usual packages, so they'd probably fiddle with pricing for the per-channel deals so that those would be much more expensive.

Or they'd do something like what Canadian cellphone providers do, and just flat out fine the customers in the form of a profit recovery fee.

[Marrah_G]

14. I would much prefer this

In fact I might actually get cable tv again if I could choose the channels I wanted.

[thesquanderer]

17. It's a great idea, but...

...this is not really where I want congress spending its time at the moment.

"We did nothing on the budget, gun control, or immigration, but we gave you better cable tv choices."

Really?

And this is the priority of the man who wanted to be president?

[cosmicone]

18. Useless and futile exercise

The cable companies will simply charge more for the individual channels so you end up paying the same money for the channels you want.

[yonder]

19. cable tv?

what is this cable tv you speak of?

[Myrina]

20. Would be the one decent thing he's done in the last 10 years ...

n/t

[bahrbearian]

24. We already got this its called ROKU, Drop the cable company

[former9thward]

42. Absolutely.

I dropped cable long ago. I have ROKU. For those things not on ROKU I have a cable between my laptop and TV so I can project any webpage on the TV.

[bahrbearian]

45. I'm going to put my old CPU next to my TV and get a wireless keyboard

[Drale]

26. O please

I don't want my money going to Fox and I really want the MLB channel but don't want to pay for the next package up

[bucolic_frolic]

27. Democratization of Cable TV

I've been against Cable Bundling for 15 years.

My money went to Faux news and 55 other channels I never watch

all so I could see 40 hours of PBS, Masterpiece, History Detectives, and
American Experience, a few sporting events, Monk, and Weather.

So I cancelled the entire thing. Saved me $900 last year. And I will not
restart it unless it is TOTAL choice. If I want 3 channels that's all I want.

BTW, the article says 'urge' cable providers. Sounds like it's NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

This is where Cable Companies are allowed not to fulfill their duty just like
Boehner and McConnell when they won't appoint people the Medical Advisory Panel.

When are my taxes going to be voluntary?

[DJ13]

28. Sounds like a good old fashioned shakedown to get money from the cable co.'s

"Contribute to me reelection fund, or I'll work to pass my own bill".

[Skittles]

32. cable companies are losing money because of their overpriced packages

they lost me as a customer because I refuse to play their stupid game but I would be very happy to purchase stations a la carte

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. I've been on do-it-yourself a la carte since December

This has two components:

1. Broadcast channels. I live in the Minneapolis city limits, so I get 4 PBS channels (main, home-garden-and-rerun, local content, and weather) and the oldies on ME TV.

2. A Roku streaming device, for playing my Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Acorn TV subscriptions and my free MHz Worldview app.

Seriously, that's everything I want or need to watch. No sports, no fundies, no kiddie shows, no shopping channels.

The only downside is that my Internet bill only went down $4 when I dropped cable TV. However, at least I'm not paying for the shopping channels and fundie channels that infest even basic-basic cable.

[madamesilverspurs]

35. Shopping for news on cable

got trickier when comcast reshuffled their tiers a while back. If you wanted coverage from anyone better than Fox, you had to pay a big price for a higher tier. When I called to make the transition, I waited until the middle of the night to make the call, hoping for a more understandable conversation. The woman I spoke with was quite friendly as she described the various plans, so I asked about a la carte options; I explained that I never ever watch the Golf channel or any of the other 20+ sports channels, and would gladly trade them all for a couple of educational spots. She chuckled and said, "Oh, I sooo agree with you! But we are not allowed to offer that."

Worse, our hospital purchased the Fox bundle for patients' television services. Nasty.

[bigworld]

36. A la carte is a big win for everyone

I'm not sure, really, what the cable companies are scared of... they'll get more subscribers, not less. I don;t have cable now... I'm not going to pay $60 a month for 10 channels I never watch. But I'll gladly pay $20 for a selection of the ten or so channels I do enjoy. That's $20 they didn't have before.

And the channels I watch... BBC America, Science Channel, Al Jazeera... are dirt cheap to the cable companies. They can double the price they are paying the program providers and it's still a bargain for me.

[jeff47]

40. The cable companies aren't scared. The content companies are.

It's hard to find viewers for Disney Channel #4. So you force cable companies to carry it in order to get ESPN and ABC.

A-la-carte and Disney now has to figure out how to get people to actually want their channels.

[Mr.Bill]

43. This would be instant death for most religious and porn channels.

Lobbyists for both will make sure this never gets out of committee.

[high density]

44. While he's at it, let's get rid of cable boxes

It's time for a new CableCARD standard that actually has some teeth behind it.

[HeiressofBickworth]

48. I think McCain's plan

is entirely in the Conservative plan. Free Market!! Let the consumer chose individual channels and for the channels that suffer losses, let them close business -- it's the free market at work. I don't see how it can fail to pass both houses of Congress -- it fits in with the Republican theories so well.

OK, sarcasm aside, the monied interests that fund individual members of Congress will never allow their puppets to vote something that could result in financial losses for them. Financial losses for you and me, OK, but certainly not for themselves.

Hypocrites -- they talk one game but play another.

[Orsino]

49. Profiles in courage.

This sounds like the sort of thing today's Congress could pass. A little feng shui for the Titanic's deck furniture.