FCC's Martin: Wish I Could've Unbundled Cable

Broadcasting & Cable has posted an “exit interview” with outgoing Federal Communications Commission chief  Kevin Martin, and while there’s plenty to digest, one thing that stands out is Martin’s frustration that he wasn’t successful in getting the cable companies to “unbundle” their programming. Under unbundling, consumers would have more of an à la carte cable model, so they could pick and choose which programming they want to pay for. (In my house, that would mean up with HGTV, down with Spike.)

When an interviewer suggests that the sour economy makes this idea even more back-burner than it has been over the last few years, Martin counters:

It is exactly the opposite. During the current economic climate, consumers are feeling the pinch more than ever. So, at this moment we are seeing consumers faced with increasing cable bills at a time of economic turmoil for them. This is the very time to be most concerned with the impact these business practices are having on consumers.

Martin certainly has a point. One of the biggest debates going on around the kitchen tables of America right now is what constitutes discretionary spending in the household budget. The cable bill probably enters a lot of those discussions, with the key question being not whether to eliminate it (especially with the DTV transition looming next month), but how to pare the sucker down. Eliminating HBO, which many of us subscribe to as though it were still producing The Sopranos and Sex and the City, is a first step, but with cable companies putting most of their programming up for purchase in broad multi-channel packages, the idea of how to cut the cable bill further gets harder.

The flip side is that cable TV, if not exactly a bright spot, is still one of the few media sectors that isn’t hurting appreciably so far during the downturn, partly because it has revenue streams from both subscriptions and advertising. You can bet that if the next FCC chairman wants to pick up the unbundling issue, the industry will fight back hard, saying that the government should be supporting business models that continue to work despite the challenging economy.

What would tip the balance is the economy getting so bad that consumers start pulling the plug on all but the most basic of cable packages, a point at which it could suddenly be advantageous for the cable industry to explore giving consumers à la carte programming offerings. Somehow, given our nation’s couch potato leanings, I doubt that will happen. Many of us probably see cable TV as being just as necessary as a steady supply of Doritos to watch it with, and I mean that somewhat seriously. (Kevin Martin photo courtesy of the FCC.)