Here's how things currently work:
- Broadcaster sets rates.
- Cable company negotiates and eventually settles (with or without blackouts).
- Cable company bundles these rates with other rates from other channels and passes it on to the consumer.
- Cable company gets the backlash from the consumer as a result of rate hikes.
So as you can likely tell, broadcasters have too much power, because cable companies will ultimately be blamed either for blackouts (failed negotiations) OR for rate hikes. So it puts them in a lose/lose situation.
Instead what cable should be doing is:
- Unbundle channels entirely.
- Pass on rate increases to the consumer for that specific channel.
- Itemise how much of what you pay goes to the broadcaster Vs. the cable company
- Alternatively the cable company could charge $0 on the channels themselves (100% broadcaster) and charge a "delivery fee" or "service fee" on the entire account.
This way the broadcaster gets blamed for the rate hikes directly from consumers, and consumers now have more power to drop certain channels if they feel the value they receive is lower than the cost they pay (e.g. $5/month for Trutv).
That's what the FCC should be doing.