A bill was introduced by U.S. lawmakers Thursday that would provide protection for children from indecent television programming. What the bill proposes to do is make satellite providers or cable operators offer some form of a la carte programming or operational changes.
FCC chairman Kevin Martin supports the bill which was introduced by Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska and Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski of Illinois.
The bill offers companies three options. First, companies could give consumers an "opt-out" a la carte option, this would require them to give refunds to consumers who don't want certain channels within a programming package. Another option would be the creation of a child-friendly package of programs that would drop mature programming. The last option would be instituting the same rules that 
govern regular broadcast channels where certain content can't be broadcast between the hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
"Americans deserve greater control over content and their cable bills," Martin said at a news conference with lawmakers who authored the bill. "Our message today is very simple: No consumer should have to pay for content they do not wish to receive. Period."
While I applaud the efforts to protect children, I like this for adults as well. Who doesn't know that we pay for a ton of programming that we have no interest in watching? It's always wanted to be able to pay for only what I watch, not what is pushed on me through bundled programming.
I'm not sure why anybody but the distributors would oppose this bill. Do we want to pay for things we don't use in other areas of our lives? Of course not. This makes sense no matter which way you look at it.
It's probably going to happen in the not-too-distant future anyhow. Once everything is offered online, and we have the system in place to transfer any programming we want to the TV set, who would need a cable or satellite connection if they're not willing to go a la carte themselves? I sure wouldn't.
I think it would be smart to support this bill by consumers and media companies. We're heading this way whether we like it or not.
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