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Sen. McCain pushes new legislation to dismantle cable bundles

Published May 9th, 2013 10:40PM EDT
McCain Cable Bundling Legislation

How much do consumers dislike cable providers’ bundling practices? So much that even Time Warner Cable’s CEO has started to publicly fret about a backlash. Republican Senator John McCain is determined to do something about overly expensive cable bundles, however, and AllThingsD reports that he’s pushing legislation that would “force pay TV operators to break up the programming bundles, by offering channels in smaller groups or on an individual basis.” While this sounds good at first, AllThingsD points out that it may not do much to lower consumers’ monthly bills since popular cable stations such as ESPN are subsidized by less popular stations. Thus, if cable providers are forced to offer channels individually then ESPN could charge around $20 a month for a standalone subscription.

Prior to joining BGR as News Editor, Brad Reed spent five years covering the wireless industry for Network World. His first smartphone was a BlackBerry but he has since become a loyal Android user.