a la carte pricing for cable ?

I know it might never happen but if congress does pass a law making cable and satellite providers to offer a la carte pricing, how would that effect Openband video service ? ( please don't tell me they would somehow be exempt from this too )

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR2005112901354.html

 

Don't hold your breath on this one. The FCC cannot make this happen because it only has statutory authority over the public airwaves, i.e. broadcasters (free radio and TV). Cable and satelite operators are private service providers that do not use the public airwaves, even when they package broadcast networks (the otherwise "free channels") into their paid packages. So it would take an act of Congress to either expand the jurisdiction of the FCC to cover private fee-based entertainment providers (which would then allow the FCC to impose a la carte pricing through regulation) or to simply mandate a la carte pricing by law. Neither of these is realistic, and definitely not in the short term. The entertainment industry is too powerful a lobby and will mount all kinds of challenges (financial and legal) to any Congressional measure.

 

Excellent analysis. I would guess that if by some miracle this gets passed by Congress, it would NOT apply to closed loop systems like yours in BSW.

I am not an Openband customer myself. I am OTA-only. If this ever happens, I would love to have a chance to subscribe to HBO and ONLY HBO. The current problem with HBO is that you need to buy 100 channels of junk to get the privalege of spending even more $$ to get what you really want.

No ala carte, NO SALE. I'll watch the DVD's a year later, no problem.