Singer and MTV reality TV star Ke$ha has now been seen drinking her own urine over the air, and for the Parents Television Council, that means it is time for viewer choice in the form of a la carte MVPD menus.
PTC’s Tim winter said, “If given the opportunity, I can’t imagine that parents would want to pay for a cable network that airs an episode of a pop star drinking her own urine, and that is why Congress needs to take seriously the idea of giving consumers the ability to choose and pay for only the cable networks they want. Most urgently, we are calling on parents and grandparents to be aware that this episode will air tonight and take appropriate measures.”
Winter repeated PTC’s contention that its supporters are in effect forced to subsidize channels like MTV which they find objectionable.
He also noted that cable prices are going up while subscriber numbers are going down, and said that the industry must face the fact that its business model is deteriorating.
RBR-TVBR observation: There are arguments for a la carte, but this isn’t one of them. That’s because when it comes to content such as this, everybody does have a choice, and it comes in the form of a channel changing device.
As disturbing as the thought of drinking urine is to this writer and we guess to many others as well, it turns out, there is a debate out there as to the health benefits of the practice – although admittedly you aren’t likely to find much support for it in the mainstream medical community. However, the practice has been around for thousands of years and is still going strong today in some parts of the world. In that light, Ke$ha’s actions aren’t all that outrageous.
We understand PTC’s point – that it does not wish to subsidize such content, which it feels it does by having MTV and other channels force fed to it; but if it turns out that it is paradoxically more expensive to adopt an a la carte model; or if adopting a la carte causes the elimination of dozens of important niche program channels, should all MVPD subscribers suffer to satisfy PTC’s delicate sensibilities?
We think not.
…and this the kind of ignorant choice on the part of the producers and MTV to air such an unnecessary act, except to attract viewers on the basis of our most basic instincts. this is why I haven’t subscribed to cable in years. and if the terrestrial networks keep trying to gain ground on the cable networks, i’m going to turn them off too…
as much as it is my choice and right to change the channel, too often, i don’t have a chance to change the channel because part of the method to attracting those “train wreck watchers” is doing stunts that are not disclosed at the beginning of the program or in the synopsis of the program. with that in mind, producers and station managers do have an obligation to air what is in good taste for audiences HERE and not for audiences in other parts of the world…
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