Expanded basic cable has become a Pandora’s box for families. Many parents welcome expanded basic cable into their homes because it opens up a whole universe of family-friendly programming: channels like the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and others.
But to access the educational and family-friendly networks, families are also forced to pay for channels they don’t want and that actually make their job as a parent much more difficult. In addition to trying to protect their children from the unsuitable programming on many of the broadcast networks, parents also have to try to protect their children from the much more explicit fare on MTV, F/X, Comedy Central and the like.
It is wrong to require consumers to pay for a product they don’t want, and may even find offensive, in order to get something they do want. Our legislators are finally listening. U.S. Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, recently introduced a bill (S. 173), which will give the power to us, the consumer, not the cable companies.
It would be unthinkable for a magazine publisher to tell you that in order to get Better Homes and Gardens, you also have to pay for a subscription to Playboy. But in effect, that’s exactly what the cable industry has been forcing cable subscribers to do for years. The practice amounts to nothing short of licensed extortion of American families by the cable industry.
Consumers are becoming aware that the public airwaves will continue to be barraged with indecent content unless and until we also address the even more vulgar, even more violent and even more sexually graphic material coming into our living rooms through basic cable, which reaches more than 85 percent of U.S. households.
The cable industry knows that there is a strong movement afoot to give the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the authority to regulate content on basic cable, or to give subscribers the option of purchasing a la carte cable packaging, which would allow consumers to only pay for those channels they actually want.In response to this movement, the cable industry announced that it would provide free equipment to subscribers so they can block unwanted channels. The cable industry has also been touting a $250 million campaign to instruct parents on how to block unwanted channels. But of course the industry demands that consumers continue to pay for those networks they are blocking from coming into their homes.
Using the magazine analogy again, it’s as if the industry were offering you ways to keep from having Playboy delivered at your home, yet still forcing you to purchase a subscription to Playboy when you wanted only to buy Better Homes and Gardens.
Furthermore, so-called “family tiers” do nothing to give families choice and control over the content that comes into their homes. “Family tiers” continue to reserve for the cable companies the right to decide what is appropriate for families, but what is appropriate for a 16-year-old adolescent is likely to be highly inappropriate for a 6-year-old child.
The cable industry is employing fear tactics to fight a la carte, hiding behind a fabricated doom-and-gloom proclamation that unbundled cable packaging would increase subscription rates for the consumer. It is outrageous for the cable industry to hide behind a veil of consumer concern after unilaterally raising subscriber rates by nearly 45 percent over the preceding five years.
The cable industry has had the technology and wherewithal to provide consumers the ability to block cable channels for quite some time. Instead, the industry withheld this technology and even charged consumers for its use in an effort to line its pockets without any regard for what was truly best for their customers. This announcement of a “solution” is at best an empty gesture meant to appease angry consumers and lawmakers, and it shows the industry’s desperation to maintain the status quo.
Giving parents the power to block offensive programs is an important step in the right direction, but consumers are still paying for those blocked networks.
Offering parents the ability to choose the channels they want, and to pay only for those channels, puts power back in the hands of the consumer and forces the producers of indecent or violent programming to fund their raunchy fare with their own money.
The cable industry has been carried on the backs of American consumers long enough. It is time for this extortion to end.
Debbie Blair is the director of the San Diego chapter of the Parents Television Council (www.parentstv.org), a nonprofit, non-partisan organization committed to protecting children from graphic sex, violence and profanity in entertainment.