It looks simple at first glance. Cable costs a lot, so the FCC is going to try to regulate it to bring down prices. Yeah. Right. They will do this by trying to increase competition. If you believe this about the current FCC as run by Kevin Martin, I have some FEMA trailers to sell you.
Kevin Martin’s time at the FCC is running out, and if he does just one thing before he leaves that agency, he plans to get A La Carte Cable rammed down our throats—whether we like it or not. Here is how and why. It is not a pretty tale, but then Martin is not a savory character.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 — The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to impose significant new regulations to open the cable television market to independent programmers and rival video services after determining that cable companies have become too dominant in the industry, senior commission officials said.
The last line of this NYT article bears note. The writer, Labaton knows what is important, and he saves the best for last so that it will linger in the reader's mind.
Mr. Martin has urged the companies to offer consumers more choices so that they do not have to pay for dozens of channels that they never watch.
A la carte cable involves ending the usual cable practice of bundling, which everyone, your local cable provider and the competition, the satellite companies, use to sell you hundreds of channels for one fixed price. Under the new system you would pick and choose which cable channels you want rather than paying one lump sum for a basic package. If you only want two or three channels, it is cheap---assuming that cable charges the same small fee for each channel. This is a big assumption. Cable operators are already adding extra charges for channels that they know are popular. Under an A La Carte model it is likely that they would price popular channels such as MTV, Comedy Central and others much higher than those that are seldom watched. And the federal government is barred by law from interfering with cable rates. Plus, if you want several channels, it can start adding up, maybe even more than basic.
A La Carte is near and dear to religious right groups, because they hate "sin" channels like MTV and TBS and Comedy Central and they do not want to "pay" for them, although technically they are not "paying" for them. Under a bundling system, they pay for the programs they watch and get everything else for free. They could use their cable blockers to block the objectionable channels in their own homes. Apparently that is not enough. They want to keep these shows, with their godless content out of their houses altogether. So, they want to be able to pick Fox News and some "values" channels.
Minority groups are opposed to it, because it would lead to cable homogenization and destroy diversity. Right now, channels that appeal to small niche audiences can afford to get started, because they are included in the bundle and can develop a following from people who flip past them on the dial. How many people found Bravo years ago that way? If these niche channels had to advertise and attract enough subscribers to pay their own way from day one, many of them would never get off the ground, and we would end up with nothing but clones of the tried and true networks---all MTVs and G4s and Comedy Centrals.
Here is what Jesse Jackson said about A La Carte Cable
http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/...
Rev. Jackson was sharply dismissive of the a la carte proposal.
"There is virtually no question among the experts that an a la carte government mandate would be the single most harmful government policy for all of us who care about diversity in programming and greater minority ownership in programming," said the letter.
Rev. Jackson also was dismissive of a suggestion from Mr. Martin that owners of TV stations ensure minority programming by leasing to minority broadcasters some of the additional stations they can air as a result of the digital transition. He warned that broadcasters would be more likely to rent the channels to programmers who want home shopping networks and infomercials, and that any FCC effort to ensure that cable companies carry those channels could prompt the cable companies to limit some of the minority channels they now carry.
The proposal would give the minority broadcasters a "second-class status" and could make matters worse rather than better, he said.
"The result would be that more non-minority broadcast channels, under the ultimate control of the same broadcasters who control the airwaves today, would get must-carry status, with the effect of squeezing out the precious channel space that would otherwise be available to prospective minority, women’s and other emerging cable and satellite programmers," Rev. Jackson said.
Congress--both the Republican and Democratic flavors--have refused to pass A La Carte cable. The FCC under Powell said that it would end up costing consumer's more. This study agrees that it would end up costing consumer's more.
http://papers.ssrn.com/...
You can download it here. "This study strongly suggests that efficiency, not market power, drives the [current] process." This is why competitors of the nation's cable companies, satellite television do not offer A La Carte. Instead they offer even larger bundles at reduced cost.
Besides the religious right, there is one man in this country who has made it his mission in life to force A La Carte Cable on us whether we want it or not--in other words to get rid of the cable bundles which we currently have. That man is currently running the FCC and his name is Kevin Martin. In the spring of 2005, he briefly took his eyes off the prize and agreed with Disney that A La Carte Cable was something we could do without. That may or may not have had something to do with a little piece of propaganda that ABC starting working on called The Path to 9/11. Now that the 2006 elections are over, Martin is a man obsessed again.
Here is some recent past history for those unfamiliar with Martin's quest for A La Carte Cable.
http://www.broadbandreports.com/...
FCC chief Kevin Martin pushed a little harder for "a la carte" cable pricing this week, going so far as to suggest that he would support legislation forcing cable operators to offer cable channels individually. The FCC chief has traditionally championed deregulation and has generally been "hands-off" when it comes to phone companies. The cable industry has therefore been complaining that Martin is picking on them (a claim he recently made light of).
On this issue (and his frequent indecency campaigns), Martin, who is eyeing a post-FCC political career, is catering to "family values" organizations like the Parent's Television Council. They've been running a "cable consumer choice campaign" that rails against the "filth" on several networks.
Note that the research paper which I cite above also mentions that Martin plans to run for office as a values Republican in South Carolina after he leaves the Bush administration, and this is why he is so bound and determined to leave A La Carte Cable as his legacy. This is not a consumer cost issue with him. It is a right wing political issue. Do not be fooled by people who claim that it is about saving you money. It is about about polishing Martin's halo, which got tarnished when he gave in to Disney on the issue.
Minority and women groups fired back when Martin launched his crusade.
http://www.blackenterprise.com/...
We cable subscribers pay cable carriers a fee per month for an explosion of channels. Some we watch. Most we don't. But we have choices. We can watch ESPN, Lifetime, and Comedy Central and we can skip over to The Food Network, TV Land and BET, if we wish. The great thing about this system is that it allows us to occasionally stumble across very informative programs we might otherwise not watch. That would never happen if we only paid for what we think we want. As we become a more ethnically diverse society, exposure to other cultures through entertainment should be made easy sans any extra price tags.
<snip>
Newer cable channels like TV One----which airs "Our World with Black Enterprise,"----along with Si TV, an English language channel targeted to young Latinos, benefit from being a part of overall cable packages. Without such arrangements, most consumers would not even know they existed and therefore wouldn't seek them out. For those consumers who would want those channels, they would have to pay a fee in addition to fees they pay for other channels they like that already have strong brand recognition and marketing prowess. Think HBO. Hence, some experts argue that overall cable rates would not go down at all.
Earlier this year, Kevin Martin fought back against the minority community, by accusing them of saying what they did because cable companies paid them to. He was forced to apologize.
http://www.tvweek.com/...
"We are deeply troubled by your recent published comments in which you stated that major civil rights organizations were opposing a la carte regulations because of financial relationships that some may have with television programmers and distributors," the letter said. "We found your comments patronizing and insulting, and ask that you make a public apology and issue a retraction."
The groups claimed there was "near unanimity" among civil rights groups that a la carte would be "deeply harmful" to cable programming diversity, "a goal that we would hope that you would share."
"Study after study—and minority programmer after minority programmer—has concluded that a federally mandated per-channel-charge regime would make it exceedingly difficult for new African American, Hispanic and women's programmers to raise the necessary capital through advertising to adequately market new programming," the letter said.
With every single minority group in the country plus the women's groups allied against A La Carte Cable you might have thought that Martin would have had to give up the idea.
You would have thought wrong.
Why, at the end of the NYT article, after he announces that he is going to become the Sheriff of Comcast and TimeWarner, do we hear about how great Kevin Martin thinks it would be if the cable industry adopted A La Carte Cable voluntarily? Does that mean he does not care what the nation's minorities and women think? He wants to do it anyway??? This man is like the Terminator. He never stops. And look at the context.
While the rest of the telecommunications industry is being told "Merge, get bigger! Consolidate! Acquire a bigger market share! Relax federal regulation!" cable is being told "Sheriff Kevin Martin is going to be in charge from now on. Oh, and by the way, Sheriff Kevin likes A La Carte Cable . He got the writer at the Newspaper of Record to remind ya'll, just in case you forgot."
Think about it a moment. Doesn’t this sound like blackmail? If you were Comcast and Time Warner and if AT&T and Verizon (your big competitors) were breathing down your neck, thanks to the possibility that Kevin Martin of the FCC might start passing some really unfavorable rules, would you reconsider you objections to A La Carte Cable? Sure you would.
This is the whole story of the Bush FCC. Carrot in one hand, stick in the other, first Powell then Martin bribes or threatens some member of the telecommunications media to play politics the RNC approved way.
There is another implication of A La Carte Cable. Part of the reason that groups like the Christian Coalition exist is to convince Americans that "values" come in one flavor in the U.S.---WASP. If the cable industry were forced to do away with bundling altogether, adopting a strict A La Carte policy, we would see cable channels that represent minority, fringe and divergent viewpoints vanish. What would remain would be a lot like the television channels on the open airwaves---bland, subtly (or not so subtly) biased towards the right wing, Protestant Christian, "Our Country Right or Wrong" with no alternative political content (hell, probably no political content at all, except for a little propaganda), lots of mindless entertainment, very safe, very white, lots of product placement. Bye bye to all the educational channels and the arts channels and the political channels and the women's channels.
And then what would your choice buy you? Remember, this is not Europe. This is America. Do you want your cable limited to what the average American wants to watch? If so, prepare to be offered an A La Carte that consists of MTV clones, sports networks, sex channels, Comedy Central rip offs, G4 rip offs and shopping channels.
