Missouri Members of the Parents Television Council Call on Sen. McCaskill to Provide Cable Choice to Families

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (June 15, 2009) – Missouri-based grassroots members of the Parents Television Council™ called on Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) to provide families with cable choice, a way to choose and pay for only the cable networks they want.  The government-mandated DTV transition, which took place on June 12, stands to enable the cable industry to gain a windfall of new subscribers who do not want the hassle of getting digital converter boxes just to watch TV, making the need for a cable choice solution even more urgent.

 

“Families deserve the right to choose and pay for only the cable networks they want, given the amount of explicit sex, grotesque violence and shocking profanity on networks that we currently subsidize with our cable bills. We urge Sen. McCaskill to put the interests of her constituents before those of the cable companies and make cable choice a reality,” said Kansas City-based PTC Member Connie Plemons.
 

PTC research has shown that some of the most offensive content imaginable is now readily available on basic cable during all hours of the day.

 

“In my community, people don’t have as much money for going out to movies and events.  We like to watch ESPN, the news and cooking shows, yet I have to pay for dozens of cable channels that I not only will never watch but have to keep my kids from watching.  I can’t imagine any other product where I have to purchase something I do not want at all in order to enjoy what I do want,” Plemons continued.  “When I pick up a copy of Time magazine they don’t force me to also purchase the National Inquirer; that would be crazy.  If I want Nickelodeon and Disney then I am paying for the degrading humor on Comedy Central, the sexual content on MTV and the violence on FX. That seems un-American to me.”

 

A 2006 FCC study revealed that consumers’ cable bills would decrease between 3 to 13 percent with cable choice.  In an unrelated January 2007 report, the FCC found that cable rates nearly doubled in a 10-year time period.

 

PTC President Tim Winter explained why consumers cannot currently choose and pay for only the cable networks they want.  “The cable network programmers have a chokehold on the public.  They make billions of dollars every year by forcing consumers to pay them for channels they don’t watch, don’t want, and may actually find offensive.  And the programmers force their bundle onto every distributor, whether it is a cable system or a satellite operator.  There is no alternative,” he said.  “The Senate should take the lead on making cable choice happen this year.  Unfortunately, the cable networks have shown no willingness to make this happen.”

 

With the PTC’s web site, www.HowCableShouldBe.com, visitors can choose the cable networks they want, and then find out how much their cable bill would be if they only subscribed to the networks they wanted.