Cable, À La Carte?

NRO: Our FCC Chair Envisions Free-Market TV

(National Review Online)  Alternatively, the subscription providers should voluntarily subject their basic expanded packages to the same indecency standards covering broadcast television. To its credit, the National Cable Telecommunications Association has been considering doing just that.

Unfortunately, these options are prohibited by current contracts between the television distributors and programmers. Some providers — such as Echostar and Cablevision — and potential entrants such as the telephone companies would like to provide more choices to consumers, but cannot because they are being denied content by programmers opposed to à la carte pricing.

The critics of Martin's ideas have resorted to overblown rhetoric about how the government plans to regulate America's viewing habits, which would result in higher prices (although I'm not sure my monthly cable bill can go any higher) and kill off fledgling competition to cable television.

Once again, Martin did not call for new regulation. And under voluntary à la carte pricing, subscription television providers would still charge a fee for basic and expanded packages that would cover their fixed costs.

More important, rapid technological advances — especially the development of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) — are increasing consumer choices. For instance, IPTV can be delivered over telephone lines into the home. Not only will these competitive pressures keep prices in check, but many of the new entrants would offer à la carte options in order to distinguish themselves in the marketplace.

Indeed, the best way to address indecency is to remove economic regulation, at both the state and federal level, which impedes competition among video providers.

Some cable TV providers are beginning to heed Martin's call. The December 12 Wall Street Journal reported that several cable operators — including Comcast, Cox Communications, and Time Warner — are considering creating a family-friendly tier.

Conservatives of all stripes should commend FCC chairman Martin for using the enlightening power of the Bully Pulpit, instead of the coercive power of government mandates, to produce an outcome that most Americans support: protecting our children from indecent programming.


Cesar Conda, formerly assistant for domestic policy to Vice President Dick Cheney, is a principal at Navigators, LLC, a public-affairs firm in Washington, D.C.