How about I cut my cable bill down by not being forced to carry all those relgious

[onenote]

23. Its been tried

Last edited Fri Feb 24, 2012, 07:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Its a tough case to win. For starters, cable operators are required by law to carry all of the broadcast signals on the entry level tier that every customer must receive before getting anything else. Since its required by law, a suit challenging it as an anticompetitive act is not going to get very far. As for the bundling of other services as part of a "package," there are efficiencies in that model which would cut against a successful antitrust claim, plus there are laws that prevent cable operators from "discriminating" against channels that they don't own -- so, for instance, the FCC recently ruled that Comcast can't carry the Tennis Channel on a separate "sports tier" if they carry NBCSports and/or the Golf Channel (both of which Comcast owns) on a more widely subscribed to tier.