That's Why It's Called A Market

A couple of weeks ago, the Chairman of the Federal Communication Commission(FCC) stated that cable companies should begin offering cable a la carte.  Immediately after, lobbyists for cable companies pronounced this a "very dangerous idea". 

What's so dangerous about letting consumers choose only the channels they want?  Cable companies operated as monopolies for many years until satellite tv and other competitors were allowed in the market.  Letting consumers pick and pay for the channels they want instead of a pre-fab package strikes me as neither dangerous nor revolutionary.  This probably would have happened years ago if the cable industry had not been insulated from competition for so long.

In a related piece,  the lobbyists claim that a la carte cable would doom some lesser-watched channels such as Black Entertainment Television(BET).  They state that "only a few subscribers might pay for them under a la carte."  Exactly!  That's because some channels aren't very good!  From the little I've seen, I would think that African-Americans are insulted by the programming put on by BET, which apparently consists of grungy rap videos and nonsensical political commentary.

Markets work to deliver a variety of products that consumers demand.  Let the market work for cable tv, and watch the quality and diversity increase.