Kudos to The Washington Post for picking up this Religion News Service article by Piet Levy on the problems religious broadcasters see with à la carte cable plans. The subject has been around for awhile. It has received heavy coverage in publications such as National Journal's Technology Daily and a segment on NPR's On the Media, but mainstream press coverage has been scant.
It's an excellent look into how Washington lobbying works. You would think that religious broadcasters would be thrilled with the idea of consumers being able to choose what cable channels they receive, but this is surprisingly not the case:
The fear among Christian broadcasters is that a proposal to allow consumers to reject MTV or Comedy Central would also allow them to drop the Trinity Broadcasting Network or Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. Cutting off that access could hurt religious broadcasters.
"We do not believe that 'a la carte' is the cure for the disease," said Colby May, attorney for the Faith and Family Broadcasting Coalition, which represents Trinity and CBN, in addition to other stations. "In fact, it is a cure that may very well kill the patient."
Evangelical and family groups support the concept of "a la carte" cable legislation, which would allow cable users to subscribe only to the networks of their choice.
The article does an adequate job of explaining the two cable channels' fears other than possibly losing viewers. Religious broadcasters are worried that they will end up "witnessing to the choir" and that channel-surfers will lose out on conversion experiences.
This is definitely a concern, but what to do about viewers who want to receive family-friendly channels such as ESPN and CNN but want to avoid FX, Spike TV and Comedy Central? Well, here's the answer:
"That's why we have remote controls," [Michael Goodman, media analyst for the Yankee Group] said. "If you don't want to see it, turn the channel. Or if you really don't want to see it, use the parental controls."
But [Lanier Swann of Concerned Women for America] said because many children are more tech-savvy than their parents, it is simply not enough. Besides, she said, the main problem is that cable subscribers are required to pay for material that they find objectionable.
In an effort to appease critics, the two main cable providers, Time Warner and Comcast, announced "family tier" packages late last year that carry only what they construe to be family-appropriate stations, such as the Disney Channel, Discovery Kids, the Food Network and CNN Headline News. But the critics are still upset.
"The 'family tier' system is a straw man designed to fail," Swann said. ". . . I don't think we need the same individuals who promote, produce and air the type of programming we're trying to avoid to be allowed to define what is family-friendly."
I wonder whether FX and Spike TV are equally concerned. I would think they wouldn't have the same "preaching to the choir" concerns, but are they worried about losing audiences?
As a consumer I want to control what I pay for. I don't like paying for Lifetime and the other two dozen channels I never watch, but I also understand the concerns of the television evangelists, not only from a financial perspective, but also from a, well, evangelistic perspective.
I guess the next question is whether government policy is supposed to be directed to support religious goals. President Bush's much heralded faith-based initiatives would seem to say that yes, government action can encourage religious activity, but I know more than a few groups that would strongly disagree with that ideology.