Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Tuesday he will...
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Tuesday he will co-sponsor the Television Consumer Freedom Act (S-912), which was introduced earlier this year by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The legislation aims to encourage video programmers and distributors to offer a la carte…
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video to consumers, deter broadcasters from downgrading their over-the-air services and amend the sports blackout rules (CD May 10 p2). “Consumers should not have to pay for programming they don’t want or watch,” Blumenthal said in a news release. “The current antiquated, antidemocratic system imposes all-or-nothing cable packages that give consumers no control over their cable bill, and prevent subscribers from voting with their feet when they are unhappy,” he said. “During the late 1990s, technological advancement and consumer demand forced the music industry to dramatically change the way it distributed music to consumers. Now is the time for the cable industry to do the same.” Chris Lewis, vice president-government affairs at Public Knowledge, said the bill is a “good first step towards giving consumers more choice, and one that does not mandate any particular business model. It would mean that people’s bills could go down, as they would no longer have to pay for programming they don’t watch,” he said in a news release. Free Press Action Fund President Craig Aaron said in a separate news release the bill “would help consumers everywhere who are paying high prices for dozens -- sometimes hundreds -- of channels they don’t want and will never watch.” Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, commended Blumenthal in a news release for supporting “this common-sense bill that will allow consumers to choose and pay for only the cable networks they want.”