A La Carte Cable Proposal Splits Evangelicals From Christian Broadcasters

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that a plan to change cable television rules to require "a la carte" service is strongly supported by evangelical Christians, but is opposed by Christian broadcasters. Sen. John McCain is likely to introduce legislation to mandate the approach which is backed by a February Federal Communications Commission report. A la carte packaging would permit cable subscribers to pay only for channels they wish to receive, and would preclude cable providers from forcing customers to take packages which include other channels. Evangelicals see this as a way to avoid receiving and paying for channels that carry programming they find offensive. Christian broadcasters, however, fear that this will prevent channel surfers from having conversion experiences after accidentally coming across a Christian broadcast. Only those who are already Christians are likely to pay for these channels in advance.