John McCain Talks ‘A la Carte’ Cable Bill, Says It’s About Lower Income Families [VIDEO]

As you may know, Arizona Senator John McCain has sponsored a bill that would take on cable and satellite TV providers by forcing a new “a la carte” system for consumers to pick and choose ...
John McCain Talks ‘A la Carte’ Cable Bill, Says It’s About Lower Income Families [VIDEO]
Written by Josh Wolford
  • As you may know, Arizona Senator John McCain has sponsored a bill that would take on cable and satellite TV providers by forcing a new “a la carte” system for consumers to pick and choose which channels they want to pay for. Of course, consumers now pay over a hundred dollars a month for hundreds of channels – many of which they never watch. McCain argues that it’s simply becoming too expensive, and that forcing people to pay for channels they don’t want is wrong and must be curtailed.

    McCain recently spoke to Bloomberg TV about his new bill, the TV Consumer Freedom Act, which aims to “allow multichannel video programming distributors to provide video programming to subscribers on an a la carte basis, and for other purposes.”

    In the interview, McCain likens the current system of subscription-based television to a restaurant with a menu full of pricey packages:

    “When I go into a restaurant…I’m given a menu and I can select from it. And the waiter doesn’t come up and say ‘which package do you want, of different courses?’ Now there may be a menu there that you can select, that has entree, appetizers, etc., but you don’t have to pay for things you don’t order. Now, because these people have monopolies…and why don’t restaurants do this? Because other restaurants don’t so therefore they can’t force you to.”

    McCain goes on to discuss the efforts against his legislation.

    “Are we gonna win? I dunno. I’ll tell you, their lobbyists, when I testified this morning, they were there in their $500 dollar suits…It’s gonna be awful hard to beat them, but they look nice though,” said McCain.

    Check out the interview below:

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