TVSquad

"...by having Christian stations as part of the lineup increases the chances of people serendipitously stumbling across them and "[changing] their life for the better."

This actually happened to me! I serendipitously stumbled across the Fox News Channel one day and decided to invade a Middle Eastern country under false pretenses. Of course, I had no exit strategy. Silly me...

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The last thing the church wants is people thinking and choosing for themselves.

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I think the bigger problem is that it doesn't allow the religous right to dictate what can be broadcast on television. It's not about the viewers right to choice, it's about what a small faction of people want you to watch. In other words, if "a la carte" programming packages are implemented, the religous right has now lost some of it's power to dictate decency of the airwaves.

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I think the Christian cable companies have nothing to worry about. If anything, their numbers would probably increase. Think about the number of families out there that don't get cable because of MTV and the like, therefore they don't get the Christian cable channels also. With a la carte, they could choose to get whatever channels they want including the Christian cable channels and not have to worry about kids tuning into MTV and the like since it won't be there.

Of course, in my case, I wouldn't get the Christian cable channels at all.

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there are two groups of stations that I would immediately cut out if it were possible to do so.

the crap religious channels and the 36 or so home shopping channels

Good Riddance.

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I never thought about this-but this makes total sense. I imagine a ton of stations going belly up. Why should I pay for some religious station to be in business to promote their own bigoted agenda that I don't agree with?

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A la carte can only go so far. If a station broadcasts OTA in your area, then the cable co's are bound by the FCC under must-carry regulations to carry them. So towns with religious stations (or shopping channels) OTA won't be as affected.

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I don't think it would hurt them either. My Mom would love to watch the Christian channels, though the Dems have her brainwashed so badly with their agenda about Republicans taking away Social Security. Must be though on the liberal that so many who are religious still vote Democrat like my Mom and my Aunts. I know you don't want them on your side, so keep up whatever you've been doing the last 12 years - I love it! Damn those people who believe in something and aren't soulless, huh?

Thank God (and Jesus) that liberals have such condescending views of everyone who's not living in their parents basement or working for Viacom and Google. Good luck in those elections. Woo, baby! :)

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Thanks for the laugh TC. Mentioning "brainwashing" on a post about religious cable. Oh the (non-existent) irony!

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The main problem they're worried about is revenue related. Right now these stations make money (even if it's just pennies a month) per subscriber from the cable and satelite systems they are carried on. So let's say Dish Network has 10,000,000 subscribers. TBN get's 10,000,000*X (where X is probably a penny or less) every month.

Switch to al la carte, even if the per subscriber fee goes up, the number of subscribers drops to

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I don't think the televangelists give a rip about anything but extracting dollars from the masses while using the Lord's name in vain to do it. I say let the market decide if these guys sink or swim. If they really believe someone may receive salvation through their programming, it would seem to me that they have a responsibility before God to pay for it themselves, not relying on the dollars of those who subscribe to cable packages so they can watch sports, nudity, and, God forbid, MTV.

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I'm a Christian--conservative at that--and I think it's a great idea to go a la carte. If the programming is worth watching, people will opt in. Anything that doesn't measure up probably isn't making that much of a difference anyway. There will will always be a market for religious programming of any kind and even the major networks get on board when they realize they can make some money off it. Ever notice that when PBS is in pinch they break out "Elvis Sings Gospel?" I'm not much of a fan of most of the Christian programming that's out there, and this would bring in better content.

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If the Christian broadcast stations are worried about people not wanting their programming, maybe they should improve it. I have chosen not to have TV at all for nearly 10 years, because I need cable to get reception, and don't want all the junk. If I could chose my stations, I'd probably go for it. I am a strong and active christian, and would probably not chose the christian stations. I think they're cheesey.

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As a Christian, I would be glad to have this option down here in Australia. From what I've heard about CBN and TBN in the USA, it makes Australia's "Australian Christian Channel" sound tame. But either way, I'd still like to be able to excise it from my basic cable/satellite tv package quite simply because the programming is cheesy to the core and at times disturbs me with its ultra-right wing bias. Heck, I'd like to be able to excise Fox News Channel too...

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