Televangelists on Unusual Side in Indecency Debate

[Thom Little]

Trying to preserve their electronic pulpits, the nation's religious broadcasters find themselves in the unusual position of fighting an effort by anti-indecency groups to thwart channels offering racy programming.

The issue involves a debate over whether cable companies should continue offering subscribers mainstream and niche channels in bundles, or let them buy what they want on an a la carte basis.

Consumer groups are pushing to let people choose their channels rather than pay for ones they don't watch. One Federal Communications Commission study showed people on average regularly watch only 17 of the more than 100 cable channels they typically receive.

But what started largely as a consumer issue has now morphed into a larger controversy involving whether cable operators should be required to continue exposing subscribers to niche channels, including religious ones, that people might not order on their own.

"We don't just want to preach to the choir; we want to reach the unchurched," said Paul Crouch Jr. of Trinity Broadcast Network in Santa Ana. "The bottom line is that we want to be everywhere on cable."


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-indecency29nov29,0,2685885.story?coll=la-home-business

[tsuki]

1. I have a big dish satellite, and buy only those channels that we

watch on a regular basis. The savings is huge.

[onenote]

30. a dying service

Enjoy your big dish while you can. Its a dying service. In fact the FCC recently decided not to apply the emergency alert system to BUD ("big ugly dishes") service because it is disappearing so fast. The number of subscribers dropped from 1.5 million to less than 150,000 in the past five years.

onenote

[tsuki]

48. There are still four companies that sell big dish, and since there

are now digital receivers, I have not lost any channels. But the fact remains that I get to pick and choose. That I like.

[bluestateguy]

2. I've always supported pay per channel cable policies

Mind you, cable companies could still offer the bulk plans, at discounted rates perhaps, but I also support allowing the consumer to customize his or her cable lineup.

I could blot out religious stations, local access stations that do nothing but broadcast boring local bureaucrat meetings, Fox News and NBC (as punishment for canceling my beloved "American Dreams").

[RC]

11. Ignorance of the boring local bureaucrat meetings

is one reason we are in this mess. Electronic Voting started there. Intelligent Design was first introduced at a boring local bureaucrat meeting. Pay attention to the grass roots.

[bluestateguy]

12. "Subcommitte B, to plan the preliminary implementation of the policy..."

:boring:

[liveoaktx]

16. You can't imagine how lucky you are to have the ability to WATCH that

where I live, the local "boring" meetings aren't covered on any television channels, nor are they covered to any extent in the newspaper, so if you want to know what's going on at a local level, you have to attend. Fine, but the meetings are held at 9:30 on a weekday.

Why pay attention? Because your local government is the one doing your roads, making zoning changes, budgeting for various services, and deciding local rules and regulations.

All politics "is" local.

[liveoaktx]

15. Yes. "Boring" local bureaucrat meetings should always be included

regardless of other ala carte offerings as part of public community news.

[izzie]

17. Some how we the people need to get hold of the power

I can not figure out how we let the stations take it all over and congress does as they wish. I guess as long and I and others keep voting for the lesser of two evils we will get this.Fighting city hall means something I guess.:rant:

[The Icon Painter]

19. A la carte

I would appreciate being able to decline not only religious and shopping channels but every last one of those incredibly tedious sports channels which litter the line-up. O joy, o rapture unforeseen!:party:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

3. Looks like thirst for power trumps "decency."

:rofl:

[smb]

57. Decency-Shecency

Looks like thirst for power trumps "decency."

What these guys know perfectly well, but won't say, is that if a la carte programming were introduced, there would be more subscribers to the Nekkid Boobies Channel than to the Come To Jaysus Channel.

[Blaq Dem]

4. Ha! I knew no one wanted to watch their boring crap!

Why don't don't EVIL-angelistist get their fat asses off the airwaves. They say only boring things over and over again: "You're going to HELL! You're going to HELL! Support Bush, if ont you're going to HELL!"

[trogdor]

58. Hey, Pat r0xorz!

...after a few beers.

[xchrom]

5. "We don't just want to preach to the choir;

we want to reach the unchurched," said Paul Crouch Jr. of Trinity Broadcast Network in Santa Ana. "The bottom line is that we want to be everywhere on cable."

does that sound like an oppressed group?

hardly.

they can fight for their right to be heard like anyone else in the open market placewhat they object to is that ANYONE should have a different idea than theirs.

of course the ''choir'' is watching the naughty channels just like everyone else too.

[ClintonTyree]

9. They don't want to lose.........

the elderly, shut-in audience which is their bread and butter. They're the only ones who watch that garbage and they are TBN et al.'s target audience and cash cow.
The elderly and infirm are much more aware of their mortality, they can see it approaching, fast. They want to guarantee their "ticket to heaven" so they donate, donate, donate to "the lord". :eyes: Who they're really donating to is the big haired women in their expensive dresses, dripping with jewelry and the guys in the $1,000 suits with the Rolex watches on their wrists.
They're the biggest hucksters going, no better than any other flim-flam artist preying upon the elderly. They, however, are selling "salvation" so it's all nice and legal! :puke:
The entire lot should be jailed for stealing from the elderly and infirm. They use high pressure tactics and once they have your name they hang on like a rabid pit-bull, trying to squeeze every last dollar out of you.

[xchrom]

10. i don't disagree with you re: the elderly.

these freak shows fleece many, many people of their hard earned money -- like they have any to spare-- and for my tax dollars, i'd severly limit their ability to do that.

[Sapphocrat]

13. The only person I ever knew...

...who actually watched those Rapture Orgy channels was the mother of an ex of mine (who was a big part of the reason my ex is now my ex).

She (the mother), in truly rapturous glee one evening, pointed to the picture of Jesus tacked up on the wood-veneer paneling of her trailer, and explained that when she prayed to him, "...he talks to me, and you can see his little lips move."

May God/Goddess/Vishnu/Mother Nature strike me dead if I'm lying.

They were Pentecostals, who thought everybody should be able to speak in tongues.

She (on Social Security) and her perpetually underemployed, check-kiting husband donated regularly to these tele-vermin. They didn't have money for a decent meal (thus, the check-kiting at any restaurant that hadn't already banned them) -- but they did have the money to cook special beef dishes for their four nasty little dogs... and the money to send to Rev. Billy Bob Hatefulspew.

True tale.

[TexasLawyer]

62. great strory!

We watched the televangelists sometimes with our German foreign exchange students (high school-- here in the US for one year). We wanted to give them the FULL cultural experience. Our students all wanted to know why these guys were allowed on the public airwaves. Good question!

One televangelist who we watched was doing a "Praise-athon" and wanted $2,000 from each listener. He said:

"The devil's in your head right now! The devil's whispering in your ear-- He's saying:

'But I don't HAVE $2,000!!!'

Well, that's the devil trying to separate you from the Lord and from heaven eternal.

I know you ladies out there with your little cookie jars. When some thing is THIS important, you'll always find the money. What if you got a phone call from a hospital and they said: 'Your son's been hurt in a motorcycle accident and we will need $2,000 to fix him' ? You'd find that money, wouldn't you?"

These guys are real pros at bilking money out of people. Many of them belong in jail.

[Khaotic]

28. The Unchurched

Yeah suuuuure they need to get to the unchurched/unbrainwashed masses.

Can't let the business of saving souls faulter.

Except Jesus, hate Islam, fear God, fear terror, pray, pray, pray!

Neocon Christian Reich thugs. Bastards.

[adriennui]

53. i'm unchurched

and i choose to remain that way.

[SpiralHawk]

6. "All your choices are belong to us." - NeoCon "Christian" Taliban

eom

[truthisfreedom]

7. "religious broadcasters embrace porn to save themselves..."

bwa-hahahahahahahahahahaha!

[farmbo]

8. What's so unusual...they're on the side of the Big Money Interests.

Par for the course with TV Preachers.

[pookieblue]

14. letting us choose the channels we want sounds like a good idea

since there are a lot of crappy channels I don't watch *cough cough fox news*. If the cable companies could offer us some sort of special...

but anyhow...this concerns me. "Nonetheless, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin has urged cable operators to voluntarily rein in racy shows, or risk having Congress do it."

Don't they have something out now, that parents can install to keep the kiddies from watching these shows? Some of us adults might actually enjoy some of these shows.


oh and btw "Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is seeking support for a bill that would force the cable industry to offer a "family friendly" tier of programming."

They do, those channels are called Disney, Lifetime, Cartoon Network, Hallmark......

[Vinca]

18. I like the idea of choosing whatever channels I want. The fundie

church channels would be the first to go.

[sofa king]

20. Hmmm. I've never really thought about this before.

Mind if I do some thinking out loud? I think I must be one of those people who watches only a few channels--football, the Hitler and lizard channels, CSPAN, plus the Cartoon Network after 11pm. Those are probably niche channels, right?

I know that the Neilsen ratings are bullshit, too.

I assume a lot of those stations I watch depend pretty heavily on the cable companies' good graces. And I'll bet that if they had to sell their wares on a per channel basis, a lot of those stations I like would fold.

Anything in black and white is gone. Anything in a language other than Merkin? Gone. Anything shot with a shaky, out of focus handheld camera which involves some out of work actor pretending to be a real person stays on. Anything designed for people who don't dare hold their breath because they might forget to breathe again stays on.

But anyone with the money to pay the cable companies, like Jesus, probably stays on too. Robert Tilton will be a little ticked off about it, but he'll come up with the money because having people hold their fingers up to the television screen to feel the power of the Lord is his main source of income.

Hitler and the lizards, Ingemar Bergman movies, and cartoons for adults might have a rougher time of it. On the other hand, my cable provider already has a large library of garbage available for viewing on demand.

If I could watch what I wanted to watch, when I wanted to watch it, I'd probably pay for it.

[trogdor]

59. It's even worse than that.

Good programming is pushed aside in favor of stupid programming. Why? Because smart people don't watch stupid programming, and you can't sell the following to smart people (or non-morons):

Gerber Life "Grow-Up Plan" insurance
Enzyte
Various "herbal" weight-loss pills
John Basedow's fitness videos
Various kinds of hokey (not to mention flimsy or downright dangerous) fitness gadgets
Multi-level marketing schemes
Timeshares (buy/sell)
Credit repair

My pet case-in-point: BBC America used to show EastEnders, only a couple of weeks behind the UK. It used to be on three times a week twice a day. Then they had all three (then four) one-hour installments (the "omnibus") on back-to-back twice a week. Then they had the omnibus only on Saturday afternoons (when no-one is watching TV). Finally, they cancelled it due to low ratings, replacing it with the kind of garbage their sponsors wanted, "Changing Rooms", "Cash In The Attic", and "Ground Force."

EastEnders is by far the UK's most popular soap opera.

BBC America isn't the only one who intentionally appeals to the moron demographic. I'm sure you have at least a dozen channels on your cable at home that are at least as bad, if not worse. There must be lots and lots of morons out there who eat this shit up, judging from the sheer quantity of available programming.

[Neshanic]

21. This is their nightmare. All pink haired and no one to watch...

I called Cox about this a couple of times when yet another of wacky fascist/religious network appeared. I told them I was tired of paying for what amounts to now six religious networks I will never watch.

The Jan and Pauls of the religious snake oil gang know that a la carte is the end of them. There are only so many suckers that will watch Jan staggering across a field with a pink cotton candy hair cloud on her melon, babbling and crying, at least not for pure entertainment value.

[Maat]

50. I've a horrible confession to make ..

sometimes I DO watch Jan for the entertainment value; they are pretty good at their racket. But the people who take them seriously and send in money probably are very good at seeing through things.

They had a big writeup in the L.A. Times on Paul and Jan. Local word is that Jan and Paul see to it that they hardly ever are together, and that Jan does not have to worry about Paul fooling around ... with females, despite their domination's anti-gay stance. Yet another much of A-class Religious Wrong Rethuglican hyprocrites.

[Neshanic]

55. Confession is good. There are many like us that watch just to see...

the train wreck that is the Crouches. Of all the religious broadcasting, the Paul and Jan show is the gold standard.

Almost like a soap opera, it is almost impossible to not watch when flipping the remote. Jan dressed impossibly funneled into a dress revealing her latest aquisitions; her hair beyond description. Do not get me stared with her lips that inflate and deflate with the regularity of doctors appointments.

The husband pings like a chinese gong, with his designer shirts, sits by her side, and has muscular guests like the buffed out body builder that plays he-man Christ in their staggeringly crass holiday stage spectacles. Then there was the gay scandal that quietly went away. Somone in his office does not have to worry about money or what hotel to stay at in Palm Springs during the gay circuit parties now.

The son and his perky android-like wife, are on many times also, and you just WANT a catfight backstage between Jan and the son's wife.

It's religious broadcasting at it's best.

[Maat]

63. That's it ... it's fascinating ... in a strange sort of way.

I particularly relate to your 'android wife' view. She is typical of the Religious Reich's blonde-streaked Stepford-wife look.

[triguy46]

22. this is too consumer oriented to have any life....

Nothing is ever done for the sake of consumers that doesn't end up screwing the consumers. But how I wish I could go ala carte and get rid of the 80% we never use.

[MindPilot]

23. My cable bill is $133 a month; $40 of that is for the broadband

so 93 bucks a month and most of the channels I never even watch. But that is the bundle I have to buy to get what I do watch, HBO, History Channel, Discovery, TLC, Comedy Central, G4, SciFi, Sundance, and the network's HiDef stuff.

If I wanted to throw in Showtime, that would be another bundle of a bunch of shit I don't watch for like $30.

What is frustrating is the stuff I can't get for any price. No adult programing because some Christian might get offended. I can't get any LA stations because I guess I might watch the wrong advertisements.

So do we call our cable providers and bitch? What else can we do?

[Indy Lurker]

61. sign up for Disnetwork

Better yet sign up for Dishnetwork using your name, and the address of a friend in L.A.

Take the stuff to your house when it arrives, and then call for the free installation.

You should end up with Local LA stations, and access to whatever adult programming is allowed in L.A.

[tanyev]

24. Wait a minute.

I know I got an email from some fundie group urging me to sign their petition in support of a la carte channels. I think it was Dobson or AFA. I remember being surprised there was one issue on which I agreed with them. I would love to be able to pick only the channels I really want.

[daleo]

25. I would like to get rid of the channels where people incessantly:

- rebuild motorcycles.
- repaint stranger's rooms.
- drive or show off cars.

Ironically, the channels listed as "educational" spend most of the day on the three activities listed above now.

[Odin2005]

32. I know, it's sad how shitty Discovey and TLC have become.

All thier good shows have gone to Animal Planet and the Science Channel, and I don't get the Science Channel here in Fargo-Moorhead. :argh:

[moriverrat]

26. The son of Paul Crouch?

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=8589

[orwell]

27. They Have No Choice...

...They will embrace ala carte or perish. Technology is moving away from cable to on-demand. If they don't change, they will cease to exist.

The "new network" will be Google. Its only a matter of time.

[NashVegas]

29. I Think We Are Witnessing the Death of Broadcasting

With or without on demand. But it will probably help things go a little faster.

[onenote]

31. why should the government dictate how cable/DBS package channels?

If I don't like my cable company, I can get a satellite dish from either DishTV or DirecTV. And Verizon just got permission to offer cable tv in my community, so I'll have that option too. If one of them decides that a la carte service makes business sense because it will steal customers from their competitors, they'll do it. But why the heck should the government be telling them how to market their product? The government can't tell a newspaper that it has to sell the sports section separate from the "style" section or the comics pages separate from the business pages. WHen you go to Six Flags or some other amusement park, they charge a single admission fee that lets you enjoy as many (or few) of the attractions as you choose. Don't want to take your 7 year old on a scary ride more suited for someone older? Fine. Your sixteen year old doesn't want to ride the "teacup" ride with the six year olds? Fine, Some restaurants offer their fare packaged as a "meal", some offer only a la carte options, some do both. I don't see any reason for the government to become an editorial board deciding how (or what) channels a cable operator or satellite service offers.

onenote

ps -- on edit: I agree that streaming video services over the Internet could overtake the current package model. But that's how it should be -- through technological innovation and marketing, not government mandate.

[FlaGranny]

34. On the other hand, why will companies

NOT give us a choice of programming we want. I was watching a part of that hearing this morning. It seems that the services that provide programming make the cable and satellite companies take adult channels or else they don't get the kids' channels. In other words if you have kids you want to keep entertained with cartoons, you have to take channels inappropriate for children or you don't get the cartoons. That doesn't seem to be a very appropriate way to supply viewing packages.

[onenote]

36. how do you define an "adult" channel?

The truly "adult" channels like Playboy and Spice etc are not owned by or sold with any non-adult channels.

If you define MTV as an adult channel, then maybe its true that the way Viacom sells MTV is to make it more attractive financially for an operator to purchase the co-owned Nickelodeon at the same time (i.e., they offer a better deal if an operator takes multiple networks than if they just take one).

The more relevant issue may be that when a cable operator buys MTV, the deal they strike may specify that MTV has to be on the most popular "tier" (apart from the entry level tier with the local broadcast signals). FX and Bravo and A&E and Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel might all do the same thing. So you end up with a big tier with a diverse array of programming on it -- some more appropriate for adults, some oriented towards kids, etc etc.

But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. A network like Bravo or A&E or BET would never have "made it" had they been sold a la carte from the start. New networks will be killed off before they ever get a chance if mandatory a la carte is enforced. And in order to make a la carte work, you'd need the government to get back into price regulation, in order to decide the appropriate price reduction when you decide not to take a particular channel. ESPN costs cable and satellite operators a heck of a lot more than a channel like National Geographic or Telemundo, so you can't simply price all channels the same. This kind of regulation will dry up investment that is needed for entrepeneurs to launch new, niche services. You think a gay and lesbian oriented channel will have any chance in an a la carte world? Not a chance.

onenote

[FlaGranny]

52. I define "adult channel" as

the one you don't want your 8 year old watching. I do see the point of packaging. Maybe it could be done in a more viewer friendly way, though. Perhaps a basic package with a la carte add ons. I have Dish now and two of my favorites are the History International channel and The Science Channel. I can't get either one of those unless I take the most expensive package.

[onenote]

60. but not everyone has the same idea of what an 8 year old should watch

Just consider the Harry Potter movies -- some people think that they are too intense for younger children, some people have no problem taking little kids to see them. There are the "ratings" that are placed on TV shows, but they are a blunt instrument, not a precision tool. Some people would not want an 8 year old to watch anything that wasn't rated TV-Y or TVY7. Others are okay with TV-G programming or even TV-PG. Yet others might be okay with TV-PG(L), but not (S) or (V) or (D). Inevitably, any attempt to force the creation of a "family friendly" basic tier will drive towards the lowest common denominator. So a family friendly tier couldn't have anything rated TV-PG or above. But TV-PG includes a lot of stuff, including some of the programming on Science and History International.

So that leaves you with a basic level "pablum" tier (except of course the broadcast programming which will be mostly TV-PG, or TV-14, thereby defeating the entire concept of a family tier) plus a la carte. But I guarantee that channels like Science or History International probably would never have gotten off the ground if they had been introduced as a la carte services. The economics just don't work. Instead of being part of an expensive tier, those channels would have been individually expensive -- the combined individual price would probably approach, if not exceed, the price of the tier.

Someday, TV viewing will be all a la carte -- individual streamed programming delivered "on demand" from an extensive menu. But we're not there yet and attempts by the government to force a particular approach inevitably will screw things up. If you want proof, consider the fact that in the early 1990s a number of cable companies tried a la carte experiments. They were accused of trying to avoid rate regulation and were forced by the FCC to discontinue those experiments.

Its not that family tiers or a la carte are necessarily bad ideas. Its the government trying to dictate these things that screws them up.

onenote

[daleo]

37. The newspaper analogy is appropriate

But the Six Flags analogy isn't. Entering into the amusement park doesn't give you access to any rides for no additional price, at least not the one's I have been to. So, in that sense, Six Flags is more like the new cable model under consideration - a general admission, then extra money for specific rides. This would be similar to a general cable charge (say a standard package of 10 or 15 channels) and extra money for the niche channels you prefer.

[onenote]

41. which amusement parks do you go to?

The ones around here (Kings Dominion, Six Flags) give you the option of buying an all day pass or you can buy season passes. Once you've paid the admission fee, you don't have to pay additional amounts to go on the rides. It may be different where you are, but I think this is a pretty common approach.

http://www.sixflags.com/parks/america/ticketInfo/

onenote

[daleo]

43. Well, I will confess that it has been some time

In the olden days I bought tickets for rides after admission. Perhaps your model has superseded the previous one, in which case your analogy is quite apt. My mistake.

[onenote]

44. I remember those days too!!

When I fork over a zillion dollars in admission fees these days, I remember what is was like to pay a quarter or fifty cents for a ride(and I'm sure there are folks who remember when it was only a dime or a nickel!).

Of course, its nice not to have stand in ticket purchasing line every time (although my memory is that we used to buy a string of "tickets" that we could use for rides and if we didn't use them all they were still good the next time we came to the park, even if it wasn't until the next year!)

Enough tripping down memory lane....

onenote

[daleo]

45. Yes, the string of tickets

That was exactly how it was. Those were the days.

[Dark]

33. Is 'unchurched' even a word? n/t

[JohnLocke]

51. Yes

http://www.answers.com/unchurched&r=67

[depakid]

35. I program any channel that carries Robertson off the TV

along with CNN & Fox. ;-)

It would be nice not to have to do that...

[Endangered Specie]

38. I'll never have cable again until they do something like this...

For now, Im quite happy using the internet to choose what I watch, commercial free I might add.

[Initech]

39. Feh, I regularly have TBN blocked from my TV anyways...

:puke:

[Bloodblister Bob]

54. why block TBN, etc.?

I watch them occasionally just to see what they're up to. Plus, you hear some of the most outlandish things and see some of the freakiest people on the planet. I mean, you can almost smell the perversion.

[Alexodin]

40. Must Carry

The telecommunications act specifies that cable operators must carry local broadcast stations (if they qualify for cable carriage under paragraph 1). If television ministries cannot reach their target on cable they will simply move to local broadcast. Could you "ala carte" a local broadcaster off your cable service? Don't know. Doubt it. Who would want to lose their local broadcaster? I think its simply cheaper and more efficient for these paid religious programmers to achieve coverage via cable. They aren't going to go away there’s too much money in it.

Multi System cable operators (MSO's) may be responsive to consumer demands not only as a response to competition but also because they view their revenue as primarily coming from subscribers and the local advertising dept be damned. They make a great deal of money programming shopping networks, infomercials, and television ministries. But they are not deaf to consumer demands. Tell your cable provider you want ala carte but don't be surprised if Billy Bob Ministries shows up on your local broadcaster. Most TV ministries have made the switch to satellite delivery services such as The Word Network and use cable to efficiently cover the rest.

[onenote]

42. I guarantee that you wouldn't be able to a la carte the local broadcasters

The broadcast industry still has a lot of clout and the must carry rules are very important to them. There is no way that an a la carte rule will apply to broadcasters. So if you don't care for your local foreign language stations, or religious stations, or home shopping stations....tough, you're going to be stuck with them.

onenote

[Alexodin]

46. I agree

I have DISH Network satellite TV and I can program what stations show up on the roster. This leaves me, the consumer, in complete control. I can customize 4 different sets of rosters for different family members. Works perfectly. No shopping networks, no TV Jesus. Perhaps the cables will consider offering this simple solution. If DISH is doing it they may have to.

[onenote]

47. But you pay the same regardless of what you program, right?

The more sophisticated digital cable boxes that are being installed by many systems these days also are readily programmable so that if you only want them to receive certain channels in a particular location, you can do so. I assume that's what you can do with DISH as well.

The problem I have with the arguments for a la carte is that it boils down to I shouldn't have to pay for what I don't watch. While that is a nice sounding sentiment, the fact is that when you buy a magazine or a newspaper, you probably "buy" articles you don't want to read. Taken to its logical conclusion, the argument for a la carte would require not only that subscribers be given the choice of not paying for channels that they don't want to watch, but also of not paying for specific programs that they don't want to watch...in other words, all viewing would be "pay per view." WHile that may be where things eventually end up, not only would that be a technological nightmare, but the billing headaches would be enormous. Every show you watched would have to be separately itemized. I'm not sure how prices would be set ... would watching a professional basketball game on ESPN cost the same as a professional hockey game? Would a program on ESPN be more or less than one on Lifetime? The economics don't really work.

onenote

[Alexodin]

49. Correct, that type of ala carte will never happen

But there is another consideration. All TV ministries and shopping networks and most infomerical channels depend on the click through to grow. The formulations for what they pay for carriage are based on sub count and daypart and the adjacent channels (though not so much). Not clicking through severely impacts them. I doubt they would want to stay on cable if the consumer can simply program them off the roster. A case of diminishing returns.

Yes DISH offers tiered programming and I buy a tier and can customize from within that spectrum. This option sounds like its already in play on some cable systems. I would then expect as this customization option rolls out the TV ministries and others will either continue to be profitable or cancel and move to local broadcast. Local broadcast probably will not be able to accomodate them all. Little tea pot UHF stations may go 24-7 paid programming. At that point you may want to clip the local off your roster.

[smb]

56. Oh, Boo-Hoo

If they can't get enough people to voluntarily pay for Jesus-TV, then it should go off the air -- in accordance with one of the principles that even conservative Republicans actually get right (at least sometimes):

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
--Thomas Jefferson