Hate BET? - Think About Supporting "Cable Choice"

Thanks to the Hollywood Reporter for the shout out! Somebody likes my limited graphic design abilities.

Sorry, this was going to be another LOOOOONG post. So I actually posted my full letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin over at The War On Black Women.

I've been hemming and hawing about whether to encourage people to support cable choice or a la carte cable. After reading the response of the creator of "Hot Ghetto Mess" to our criticism, I've decided that THIS level of arrogance must be STOPPED. To hear Debra Lee of BET tell it, cable choice or a la carte cable would place BET in serious peril financially ( I think she's lying, but thanks for the heads up Debbie Antoinette!)

What the heck is Cable Choice/ a la carte cable?
Basically ( pardon the pun), what a la carte cable means is that you would pay individually for the channels you actually watch as opposed to paying for one hundred channels when the average person only watches 17.

Those of you who keep e-mailing me saying you don't WATCH BET, you're still paying BET whether you watch them or not. So that's why they don't care if people say they are going to "boycott BET" you can't boycott BET unless you boycott cable in its entirety. BET gets paid whether you watch or not because they get a cut of your subscriber fee.

Although BET routinely runs around touting that they are beamed into 84 million households, they know that only a fraction of that 84 million would pay to specifically view BET. Some figures I have read indicate that BET receives 80% of its revenue from compulsory subscriber fees. Can you say OUCH if consumers had to actually choose to invite BET into their homes? Whether you agree with a la carte pricing or not, you should know that BET is representing that cable would become less DIVERSE if people actually got to choose what they could watch on cable.
Last week the NAACP, in between preparing to bury the "N-word" and selecting the menu for the banquets at their national convention, decided to send a letter to the Chair of the FCC in defense of BET and against cable choice In defense of the NAACP, they don't list BET by name, but who the heck else are they talking about? Here is the link. Here are the letters of other "civil rights" organizations carrying BET's water.

I've decided to write a letter explaining why in the case of BET, cable choice would be a wonderful thing. If you really are sick of BET and would just as soon have it land in the dust bin of history, you can write a letter too. Legislation is currently pending. If you want to send a letter to Chairman Martin about BET's Programming and your desire NOT to have to pay for it out of your cable bill, you can contact Chairman Martin here.

If you want to see the text of my letter to the Chairman, you can go here.

If you want to read about BET's foolishness, you can go here, here, here and here.

In addition to calling Debbie Lee on her elitist multimedia crack peddling, we also throw the occasional jab at Hip Hop, the Russell Simmons School of Obfuscation and Redirection, and Al Sharpton for exploiting the War on Black Women bumrush the closest cable TV camera.

Stroll through our greatest hits : Should Hip Hop be Eradicated?,?, DL Hughley is Wrong: White Folks May Have a Point, Where in the World is Rev. Al- Sharpton Watch Day 01, Sharpton Watch is Over!, OH Snap: Video of protesters confronting Dieon Sanders and Dl Hughley in Ft. Worth. and my inaugural post: After Imus: Now What.

Comments

[Jennifer]

Thank you for posting this! I definitely hate paying for BET, MTV, Spanish programing and etc. since I don't watch them. Would this involve DISH Network(satellite)? I'm with them, but if it doesn't then I will switch to Comcast or something once this legislation is passed.

[g-e-m2001]

Jennifer, the legislation wont be passed unless African Americans speak up. BET is arguing that cable choice will reduce diversity because people won't want to pay to have crap like Hot Ghetto Mess piped into their airwaves. you need to send a note to the FCC Chaiman and you also need to call your US Senators and US Representative. TODAY! just a quick call to ask them to support cable choice or a la carte pricing.

[Zabeth]

Hey, do you have a link to the NAACP's letter in defense of BET? Unbelievable!

[g-e-m2001]

Let me look it up. In the NAACP's defense, they don't specifically cite BET, but who the heck else would the be talking about. Liet me get on that and get you the link. have you read Reggie Hudlin's response to the Hot ghetto mess Criticism, its now supposed to help facilitate parenting skills! HA!

[g-e-m2001]

Zabeth, the link is up in the article now.

[The Angry Independent]

I heard about this a last year...

But most cable providers seem to be against the idea... they are afraid of losing money. The networks also complained....afraid that they would go out of business (BET = main culprit).

These companies used their power to squash the idea at the time, but I hope that this effort is revived and legislation finally gets passed.

BET would be the first to go....and they probably would go out of business. Their ad strength would plummet for sure.

Gina....if you could mount an effort that could somehow pull this off.... you would really be one of my s-heroes (seriously). I would owe you for life.

It doesn't make sense to pay for channels that you don't want.
I would love to customize my own cable service.

The problem is... we don't have the high paid lobbyists working on our behalf like the cable companies & the networks do. And todays corrupt members of Congress respond more effectively to lobbyists than to average citizens.

[g-e-m2001]

AI,

WE DO HAVE LOBBYIST! There are corporate titans on BOTH sides of the cable choice issue. The telephone companies are chomping at the bit to get a la carte pricing because it will open up the cable market.

Did you send a note to the FCC chair?

[Zabeth]

I did find that interesting, but not surprising as I've come to expect that kind of explanation from black media outlets...unfortuntately.