Senate committee examines the state of video

The Senate Commerce Committee's Communications, Technology, and the Internet Subcommittee held a hearing entitled "State of Video," on May 14.

First off, former committee member Senator John McCain (R-AZ) urged that the cable industry adopt a la carte pricing, letting consumers pay only for those channels they actually want and watch. McCain's "Television Consumer Freedom Act of 2013" will, according to the bill offer "video programming for purchase, whether on a wholesale or retail basis, on an individual, per-channel basis."

CWA is fully in support of Senator McCain's bill.

Consumers certainly need relief from the cable monopoly. According a new report from the media nonprofit Free Press, Combating the Cable Cabal: How to Fix America's Broken Video Market, Free Press Research Director and report author S. Derek Turner said subscribers are constantly paying more for the same service.

"Price increases on cable subscriptions," said Turner, "are now as inevitable as death and taxes. Competition is an illusion in this market. We have a comfortable cabal of cable programmers and distributors that work to ensure consumers have no power. This is why some channels can lose two-thirds of their audience but maintain profit margins nearly three times that earned by Exxon Mobil."

Read the report here.

And watch the Senate subcommittee hearing webcast here.

The State of Video (Webcast, Senate Communications Subcommittee, May 14, 2013)

Television Consumer Freedom Act of 2013 (Senate Bill, 2013)

Combating The Cable Cabal: How to Fix America's Broken Video Market (S. Derek Turner, Freepress, May, 2013)

New Free Press Report Shows How to Fix America's Broken Video Market (Freepress, May 13, 2013)