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Florida Constitution Revision Commission

PUB 700574: A La Carte Channel Selections by chris luz

ARTICLE XI: AMENDMENTS, New Section.

Catchline: a la carte television channel selection

all telecommunications companies licensed in the state of Florida to distribute television channels to customers using easements and rights of way across private property belonging to owners who are not customers shall, in order to retain such easements and rights of way, be required to offer each channel on their system individually and priced separately from all other channels. a basic cable plan should include all channels the company chooses to offer which are offered for free distribution, so customers are only paying the local provider for the convenience of receiving the channels through the coaxial cables, fiberoptics, copper phone lines, etc, subject to the easements and rights of way. each channel or content producer which charges a fee for redistribution of content shall be itemized separately on the customer's bill for each channel. in addition to offering each channel for a separate itemized fee, producers of content (some large media companies own many channels) may also bundle channels together to offer customers other pricing options. the purpose of this amendment is to eliminate the practice of telecommunications companies that use physical lines and wires across private property that require involuntary easements paying "carriage fees" to channel providers. the practice of paying "carriage fees" takes the choice away from consumers as to which channels they want and don't want to pay for. The intent of "a la carte" channel selection is to restore market forces to television distribution, rewarding channels and content providers that fulfill market demand, and eliminating privately negotiated distributor subsidies to content providers that have comparatively less market demand. the local distribution companies described in this amendment must maintain websites where customers can view their billing and balance and channel subscription information updated daily and change their channel subscriptions. monthly or quarterly or semi-annual restrictions on customers changing channel subscriptions can be imposed by companies at their own discretion to minimize complications of frequent changes.