Some Choice Words

[Commentary] Senate Commerce Committee staffers are pitching what’s called the Local Choice plan for retransmission consent reform as “an evolution of the existing retransmission consent regime to a simpler approach, designed to put more power in the hands of the viewer.”

That sounds good, until we get to the line about controlling the cost of viewers’ pay-TV subscriptions. That’s when it sounds more like “retransmission consent trampling and eviscerating.”

Government-mandated à la carte is not the answer. The marketplace is already driving choice, taking the form of on-demand and over-the-top options.