... ready for it!

For the first time, decency regulations would be extended to cable and satellite services.

WTF?!?

Seems to me, consenting adults should be able to watch whatever content they deem appropriate, so long as the viewing of it does not harm others.

The only established content of this kind, to date, is kiddie porn, and that's totally just.

Is this an end around the FCC recently being put in it's place by the courts, or an attempt to buy some of the conservative vote, or what?

Those few things I choose to watch on television are likely more costly for me than they would be otherwise. It's the bundling. However, if they put decency regulations on the subscriber services, I really won't have that much of a reason to subscribe.

It's not that I only look for this kind of content, I don't. The sci-fi stuff I watch is clean, Comedy Central is fairly clean because of the bleeps, Law and Order, etc... No biggie.

But I enjoy Bravo! and HBO, with the Sopranos being an excellent program, with vivid and believable characters.

IMHO, this price is too high.

We've got subscription programming that seperates content from kids. We all had to pay for V-chips, parental locks on our sat and cable decoder boxes, ratings, etc...

Clearly, this isn't about protecting the kiddies because we gave the protect the kiddies people all they asked for, and they always want more.

SO, IT MUST BE ALL ABOUT KEEPING THIS CONTENT FROM ADULTS right?

I've wanted the per channel pricing for a long time. Not really about dollars so much as it is all about keeping things simple, and the belief that per channel pricing would likely cause content creators to really compete and create compelling content, otherwise not as much would be consumed.

This, to me, is not worth it and just stinks of some move to gain politically and not actually serve Americans.

Hell, the brits get really great television and their stuff is run by a government monopoly. How are we so screwed up here?

Isn't this a classic, let the market decide case? With all the controls available, we all can make the moral choices we want, regarding television programming.

...unless there are people out there who want to regulate other peoples choices. I'm sure this is a factor, but as much as I would love to just lay the blame for this whacko idea on those people, I smell something wrong with that simple scenario.

Wouldn't making all the content as bland as what is permitted via the airwaves, just drive fewer people to television in general? Could the broadcasters be looking to gain an advantage over satellite and cable services?

That's it, and here's a quick write up:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070615-new-bill-would-create-family-tier- extend-indecency-standards-to-cable.html