While our national representatives have been talking about this for years, the Chairman of the FCC is now endorsing the idea of à la carte cable channels. For those who didn't discuss this incessantly during countless Champaign-Urbana Joint Cable & Telecommunications Commission meetings, this is basically forcing cable companies to sell you individual channels instead of large packages. The idea behind this is that this would result in cheaper television for consumers.That idea is, of course, totally without basis. The fact is that these big honking packages which consumers are forced to buy contain many channels that nobody would purchase if left to their own devices -- channels that are, in reality, partially subsidizing the costs of delivering the channels people actually do want to watch. I hate to agree with Brian Dietz (NCTA vice president and general all-around sleaze-ball), but when you're right, you're right, even if the lies you tell to justify your correctness are in fact lies.
Not that actual costs have anything to do with how much cable monopolies decide to screw you for.
Some generally very informative and consumer-oriented websites are mistakenly encouraging people to write their representatives about this issue. I wouldn't recommend it.
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