WOMEN PROGRAMMING EXECUTIVES URGE CONGRESS TO REJECT A LA CARTE PROPOSALS

New Orleans, LA -- Top female executives from leading cable TV networks today urged members of Congress to reject proposals that would require cable and satellite providers to offer programming on an “a la carte” basis or dictate terms of private contracts between program networks and multichannel video distributors. The women executives addressed their concerns in an open letter to Members of Congress, in response to calls by Concerned Women for America, an advocacy group, for government imposition of a la carte pricing requirements.

Signatories to the letter included: Carole Black, President & Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Entertainment Services; Kathy Dore, President of Entertainment Services, Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc.; Judy Girard, President, Shop At Home; Andrea Greenberg, President Distribution & Rainbow Sports Network; Bonnie Hammer, President, Sci Fi Channel; Mindy Herman, President & Chief Executive Officer, E! Entertainment Networks; Brooke Johnson, President, Food Network; Geraldine Laybourne, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Oxygen Media, Inc.; Debra Lee, President & Chief Operating Officer, BET Holdings, Inc.; Judith McGrath, President, MTV Networks Group; Judith McHale, President & Chief Operating Officer, Discovery Communications; Christina Norman, President, VH1; Laureen Ong, President, National Geographic Channel; Susan Packard, President Scripps Networks Affiliate Sales and International Development; Abbe Raven, Executive Vice President & General Manager, A&E Network; Cynthia Sheets, President & Chief Executive Officer, Wisdom Media Group; Anne Sweeney, Co-Chairman of Disney Media Networks, and President of Disney-ABC Television; Pamela Thomas-Graham, President & Chief Executive Officer, CNBC; Lauren Zalaznick, President, TRIO; Cyrna Zarghami, President, Nickelodeon Television.

Because a la carte delivery of networks would undermine the current programming distribution model that provides networks with two primary sources of revenue – advertising and subscription fees – such government intervention in the marketplace would result in less choice, higher cable prices, and the demise of many cable networks, the letter said. “As women television executives, who have strived to create quality programming, we take pride in the fact that our networks have vastly expanded programming choice and diversity for American consumers,” the executives wrote. “Government efforts to dictate how our programming is packaged or marketed would be bad for consumers because it would give them less choice and less diversity in programming, and it would increase the price they would pay for this inferior set of offerings.”

The executives argued that consumers would pay higher prices for cable and satellite service under an a la carte regime because the license fees of cable networks would dramatically rise in order to cover advertising revenue lost if networks are no longer offered on a basic cable tier. They cite a General Accounting Office report from October 2003 which concluded that a la carte could cause price increases for cable subscribers and that some cable networks may not survive in an a la carte environment.

“Under an a la carte system, consumers who now pay $40 per month for expanded basic cable service that provides 60 to 70 channels, may need to pay the same $40 for a fraction of the channels they currently receive,” the executives said.

While some of the efforts to impose a la carte delivery on cable and satellite providers are being put forth as a reaction to concerns about appropriate TV content for families and children, the women cable executives say that a la carte would result instead in a fundamental restructuring of the programming business. They pointed out that the cable industry is addressing programming content concerns by providing customers with free channel blocking technology to screen unwanted content from the home.

“Over the past twenty-five years, an impressive and vibrant cable programming industry has developed, providing Americans with the most diverse array of television programming anywhere in the world,” the letter states. “By contrast, a la carte – whether in place of, or as an add-on to, the current tiering model – would dramatically change the way programming is distributed and marketed and undermine the economic underpinnings of our businesses.”

NCTA is the principal trade association of the cable television industry in the United States. NCTA represents cable operators serving more than 90 percent of the nation's cable television households and more than 200 cable program networks, as well as equipment suppliers and providers of other services to the cable industry.