Channel Choice Could Provide a Consumer-Friendly Solution to Television Violence
Change the channel or turn off the television.
That’s the usual advice parents get from big media companies when they complain about the growing level of violence on television.
It’s frustrating for parents because there is a constant stream of extremely violent programming flowing into their homes over the airwaves and through the cable these days, and even the most vigilant parents don’t have time to constantly monitor what the kids are watching.
At the same time, it’s not fair – and probably not legal – for the government to order media companies to pull the plug on some of the most entertaining and critically-acclaimed programs on television because they contain graphic violence, such as The Sopranos.
Several years ago, Congress asked the Federal Communications Commission to study the problem of violence on television and come up with some possible solutions. Last week the FCC finally responded with a report and a handful of recommendations.
While we certainly don’t agree with everything in the FCC report on television violence, we do find one proposal especially intriguing – Channel Choice, also called “Cable a la Carte.”
Channel Choice means cable television consumers would be able to choose and buy only the individual channels they want to receive. That would be dramatically different from the current situation where consumers are forced to buy big bundles of channels – including many channels they might not want or ever watch – just to get the programs they want.
Channel Choice would put consumers firmly in charge of the programming flowing into their homes. Parents concerned about violent programming could buy only non-violent channels. An added benefit would be that parents would no longer have to pay to subsidize channels they find objectionable.
Similarly, all consumers would not have to pay to subsidize channels they don’t want or watch.
Gene Kimmelman, vice president for federal and international affairs at Consumers Union, sums it up nicely.
“Letting consumers, not Congress, the FCC or cable companies, decide which programming is right for their families is an appropriate, market-based response to growing concerns about violence and other objectionable programming on cable television," says Kimmelman. "Consumers should neither have to take extraordinary steps to block programming they don't watch and don't want to receive, nor pay for channels they find offensive or otherwise inappropriate."
Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, Communications Workers of America, and Free Press have sent a letter to Congress urging legislators to take steps to give consumers the ability to pick and pay for only the channels they actually want to purchase.
The groups said the size of the bundle has contributed to skyrocketing cable prices, which have increased by 70 percent, nearly two and half times the rate of inflation, since Congress deregulated cable prices in 1996.
Channel Choice is preferable to other regulatory approaches suggested by the FCC, such as time-channeling, which face greater constitutional hurdles, require more government intervention and do less to empower consumers, the groups said.
By allowing consumers to vote with their wallets rather than forcing them to buy channels they never watch, the marketplace will respond by providing programming that is more diverse and of greater quality than the homogenized and repackaged programming forced on consumers today, the groups said.
You can learn more about Cable Choice by clicking here.
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