John McCain's new TV bill.

[Daikun]

Via Business Insider:

John McCain is trying to pass legislation that would unbundle cable packages, allowing consumers to only pay for the cable channels they want.

One of his key reasons for wanting to go to an a-la-carte style is that the price of cable has risen through the years. He cited the data we've charted here from the FCC which shows cable bills rising through the years.

In McCain's view, allowing consumers to pick a small selection of channels they really want should help them save money.

[Commode]

Yeah right, good luck with that.  Sure, this would save consumers money, but it would also cause many networks to lose money.  Think about the channels that you personally would drop, I'm pretty sure a channel like ESPN(one of the, if not the single, biggest and most expensive cable channels as far as rates go) would be a channel that most of the members on this site would drop.  Why would Disney let people pick and choose if they wanted ESPN, rather than forcing it down their throats?  If you chose to drop it, that's one less subscriber than what they have now.  I think as long as this is true, any a-la carte type bill is going to get lobbied against to hell and back.

Pay TV is such a dated concept anyway, I really wish the networks would just embrace the streaming future.  Some are going with it decently, others not so much.

[Daikun]

I think this bill might actually shut down a lot of channels due to them losing money. And that's a good thing.

Let's face it: TV is a bloated pig. There are way too many channels that copy one another. (MTV2? ESPN2? FXX? Seriously, do we need all these unneeded extras?) There are also so many channels that play the exact same shows. How many more "retro" channels do we need? How many more movie channels do we need? They all play the same damn shit, yet we're expected to pay for it all.

There are also corporate-mandated channels that you have no choice but to subscribe to. You want Nickelodeon but not MTV? Well, too bad; it's both or nothing. Deal with it.

We can have hundreds or even thousands of channels thanks to our providers, but do we really need all that glut?

[Commode]

Yeah, and I don't see any of that bloat going away any time soon.  Like I said, it would benefit us, but it wouldn't benefit the corporations, which is what really matters in a fight like this, since they have that money to kill the bill.  The only weapon we've got is not subscribing to cable services(which I take full advantage of), however it seems most people are content with the current business model, considering they are still paying for all the bullshit they don't want or need.

[Avaitor]

This isn't the first time someone has tried to get the same thing to happen, but it hasn't really occurred yet, has it?

[GregX]

If he gets this through, I might forgive him for Sarah Palin.

[Dr. Insomniac]

The cable choice thing's been going on since Bush was at the helm. I can't really say that this attempt will be as fruitful as the rest.

[Kiddington]

It's always been a nice thought, but it'll never happen.

Never.

Streaming is the future, like it or not. In saying this, I need to get off my old ass and start getting with the times here myself (if I had my own place I probably would've already, but since my parents insist on paying for dinosaur luxuries, I might as well make use of them while I can).

Cable is still useful for sports, though, I'll give it that (I've tried streaming NFL games, and the quality sucks). And given that I'm probably the only person on this forum that actually watches sports, well, it still serves something of a purpose for me at least.

[Commode]

I watch the NFL too, but that's about it.  Some NASCAR sometimes, but I'm not into it the way I was when I was a kid.  And I guess basketball on occasion.

What do you use to stream NFL games?  Are they legit places, or are they "other" sources?  I'm only asking because whenever I stream games I can usually find decent streams, but it's almost always through the "other" route.

And unless you have DirecTV Sunday Ticket or something, then I'd rather not watch games on cable, lest I be fed the same crappy Patriots games over and over again that I don't really want to see.

[gunswordfist]

I think this bill might actually shut down a lot of channels due to them losing money. And that's a good thing.

Let's face it: TV is a bloated pig. There are way too many channels that copy one another. (MTV2? ESPN2? FXX? Seriously, do we need all these unneeded extras?) There are also so many channels that play the exact same shows. How many more "retro" channels do we need? How many more movie channels do we need? They all play the same damn shit, yet we're expected to pay for it all.

There are also corporate-mandated channels that you have no choice but to subscribe to. You want Nickelodeon but not MTV? Well, too bad; it's both or nothing. Deal with it.

We can have hundreds or even thousands of channels thanks to our providers, but do we really need all that glut?

Um yeah, I'm going to need MTV2 and FXX (is it even out yet?) to stay.

The one bad thing I see about this is cartoon channels and children. Boomerang would get dropped like a bad habit just to save money. At my brother's house, it's the one good cartoon channel he has (Hub mostly sucks.)