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John McCain Working On Legislation For 'a La Carte' TV Channel Packages
An anonymous reader writes "John McCain, Republican Senator for Arizona and former U.S. presidential candidate, is drafting a new bill that would pressure TV providers to allow customers to select and pay for only the channels they want to watch. The bill will also 'bar TV networks from bundling their broadcast stations with cable channels they own during negotiations with the cable companies, according to industry sources. So for example, the Disney Company, which owns both ABC and ESPN, could not force a cable provider to pay for ESPN in order to carry ABC.' Perhaps most importantly, the bill could 'end the sports blackout rule, which prohibits cable companies from carrying a sports event if the game is blacked out on local broadcast television stations.' This would hamstring the ludicrous practice of blacking out TV broadcasts in order to drive fans to buy actual tickets to a game. The cable and satellite TV industry is expected to push back very strongly against the bill."
Depends on how it's framed. If they write the bill so it's all about finding out who orders Telemundo so they can be deported I think it would get a lot of support.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Palin.
Everything is better with chainsaws.
Partly, bad timing: his party's brand was tarnished by George W. Bush. Partly, bad choice of running mate.
Blame the party leadership, not McCain himself.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
I don't care if it passes. The fact is that it would be too-little too-late for me to care about television anymore. The advertisements you pay for, the terrible reality television, the death of educational programming, and the underlying vacuousness, even if they were partially caused by "free money" streams from package deals, aren't going to be reversed by suddenly making them fight for the percentage of their audience who will take advantage of this.
TV is dead, and the small pieces of legitimately good television can be gotten through the internet. It's too late to save cable.
There's another reason McCain is behind this: A la carte cable is a very popular idea with the social conservative faction that holds a lot of influence within the republican party. The FRC has frequently put out a public call for something like this. Their motivation is in obscenity and indecency: They really don't like the idea that good christian conservatives have to pay for the raunchy entertainment and liberal media channels because they happen to be in the same bundle as the Disney channel and Fox news.
What is really funny is that the only GOPers that could make it to the whitehouse can't make it through the primary.
This is what the GOP gets for doubling down on the derp.
...and if Hillary Clinton won against Obama in the 2008 primaries instead, would you have said the same thing? After all, that one was fairly close for the longest time, and she would have been Clinton II administration-wise if she had won the job (and if it weren't for her husband's by-then-tarnished reputation, I daresay she would have won the primaries hands-down.)
Fact is, both parties do the derp factor - big-time. It's even a mainstream formula - you pander to the hard portion of your party during the primaries, then swing back and do your best to pander to everyone else after you get the nomination. If you don't do that, you don't win the primaries.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Me neither. I'm hardly a libertarian, except in the sense that everyone is*, but this seems to me to be government overreach.
Cable TV is not a vital public service, in any shape or form. It's not important infrastructure you must have access to or else be significantly disadvantaged. Nobody is any the worse for not having it. In fact, it's actually just awful.
Given that, let the market take care of it.
I will assume you mean the mythical "free market". There is no such thing, of course, and this is especially true where market choice is limited by natural monopolies, as is the case in cable and satellite television service. So your solution fails. It's less than ideal, but only regulation will see to it that the consumers are not getting the short end of the stick, as they are now.
Quick - define "moderate" without using your own ideology as a guide, and be intellectually honest when you try.
Fact is, you cannot do so, and neither can I.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Really? I just renewed my DirecTV 2 year contract. I tried really, really hard to 'cut the cord' (or in this case 'ditch the dish') but after careful study, I found with a family of four, including two children, this just won't work. I thought some combination of XBox, Hulu, Netflix, and OTA HDTV would suffice but there is one glaring flaw with this: Ease of Use. See, my wife isn't a techie. She wants to turn on the TV from a remote with one button (which then turns on the stereo, selects the proper input, etc.) and then have a GUIDE for everything she might want to watch right now or record in the future. We have 2 DirecTV HD-DVR's that are on the network, so we can record 4 shows at once (we never do) and watch these shows from any of the other non-DVR's in our house. It is simple. It works. And there isn't a solution available (that I could find) that would aggregate all of the available shows into one, easy to use guide for selections. I do watch sports, and losing those would be the only reason I would potentially not switch if I were single because I wouldn't mind using different systems for different things.
I am amused at how RINO is a commonly-expressed acronym in American politics, yet DINO is not. Not only does it reinforce the stereotype of the strictly-regulated lockstep political machine the Republicans have become, wherein any dissenting thought is quickly labeled so it can be shamed with the "RINO" name, but it also helps demolish any lingering illusion of the "big tent" theory the party thinks it's fooling anyone into believing.
Hell, if you're a Republican (I am) and believe that hurricanes are caused by high barometric pressure (I do) and not gay marriage (I don't), then you, too, are a RINO. If you are a Republican and don't believe that angels counsel Republican candidates for high office (I don't), you are a RINO. If you are a Republican and don't believe that English as spoken in the US can be reduced down to the phrase 'America! FUCK YEAH!!" (I don't), you are a RINO. If you are a Republican who believes that ONLY the Republican Party should hold office now and forever (I don't), then you are a good rank and file member and not a RINO like me.
Our elected officials have the duty to govern in the interests of the people who elected them, not claim a mandate to neuter the opposition and obstruct anything the Opposition comes up with. Funny how both parties seem to forget that these days.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Ah, see? I can tell you're a republican. Hurricanes are a result of low barometric pressure...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”