Concerned Women for America (CWA) released a poll May 5 that found that 80% of Americans want cable customers to be able to choose what channels they receive rather than being required to accept whatever packages that highly regulated cable companies offer their customers. CWA found that cable customers should not "be required to pay for a basic package of programming that might include channels that they don't want to view." Said Jan LaRue, chief counsel for CWA: "American cable customers want to choose what they pay for and nothing else. Having to block out programming you pay for is no choice - it's a rip-off."
The poll also asked those who don't get cable, "Would you be more or less likely to subscribe to cable television if you were able to choose the programming to be included in your basic cable package?" Sixty-six per cent responded that they would be more likely to subscribe, with 39% of those being "much more likely to subscribe." Not only could channel choice enable Americans to save money, but it would allow them to refuse to pay for channels that air blasphemous, pornographic, or otherwise perverse content, as cable channels increasingly do. Americans United for Cable Choice placed a full-page ad in USA Today last week asking Americans to contact their cable companies to push for channel choice. CWA wants Congress to act this year to enable channel choice.
