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Article: A la carte off the Senate's menu: Commerce Committee won't buy McCain's bid to split cable pricing.(Top of the Week)
- Article from:
- Broadcasting & Cable
- Article date:
- March 29, 2004
- Author:
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Cable programmers can breathe a little easier. Efforts to force cable operators to price channels on an individual basis--or "a la carte"--are all but dead for this year, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain acknowledges. Last week, without enough votes to move the idea through his own committee, the maverick Republican instead promised only to explore a pilot program pitched by cable nemesis Consumers Union.
The industry believes a la carte service would severely harm cable networks, especially small networks with niche audiences.
McCain, who has been fighting cable rate hikes for years, will step down from the committee's helm at the end of ...