FCC: Let viewers choose channels
By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
In a sharp reversal, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday that the agency now thinks cable companies should stop forcing people to subscribe to bundles of channels and instead should let them choose the channels they want.

Kevin Martin, FCC chairman since March 16, asserted that a la carte pricing could both allow parents to block raunchy programming and lower their cable bills.

His stance might push Congress to require cable and satellite companies to offer the option.

Martin said a 2004 FCC report — which concluded most consumers would face higher cable and satellite bills under mandatory a la carte system — "presented incorrect and incomplete analysis."

A new FCC report near completion "concludes that purchasing cable programming in a more a la carte manner in fact could be economically feasible and in consumers' best interest," Martin said at a Senate forum on indecency.

The news comes as Congress debates tough new indecency legislation. The House has passed a bill that would boost FCC fines on broadcasters for airing indecent content to $500,000 from $32,500. A similar bill has stalled in the Senate over whether to apply indecency rules to pay TV.

The cable industry has called such legislation unnecessary because set-top boxes let parents filter out channels, and sometimes even programs, with offensive content.

Consumer advocates call that technology ineffective, partly because subscribers must still pay for the unwanted channels.

Under a la carte, consumers would have to subscribe to a basic tier that includes the broadcast stations and channels such as CNN. Beyond that, they would pay only for channels they want. Thus, parents could reject racy channels such as MTV or Comedy Central.

The 2004 FCC report found that the average cable household, which watches 17 channels, would see its bill rise 14% to 30%, assuming it ordered that number of channels.

The average channel price would be $3.90, the study said, and only subscribers who pay for fewer than nine channels would save under a la carte.

Martin said the report mistakenly included the broadcast channels in the basic tier to arrive at that average price. Omitting those stations would increase the number of channels consumers could order without a price hike, he said, though he wasn't specific.

Kyle McSlarrow, head of National Cable & Telecommunications Association, called the a la carte mandate a "very dangerous idea." He said it would violate cable companies' free-speech rights and would be struck down by the courts.

And research firm Legg Mason says it's unlikely Congress would pass an a la carte mandate because it would imperil cable channels that depend on widespread carriage by cable systems for advertising revenue.


-I think it's only a good idea depending on how many channels and which ones are included in the basic tier (how much $ for Basic?). We need Comedy Central, ESPN, TLC, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Nick, MTV, VH1, Lifetime, Bravo, YES, Discovery, and FOOD.....so at $3.90 a pop, it could really add up.