Stations that won't allow the a la carte sale of affiliated cable networks would not be able to rely on federal regulations that protect their broadcast programs from Internet piracy under a
proposal from Sen. John McCain. Multichannel News reports that the Arizona Republican, who backs more a la carte choice for cable and satellite subscribers, will offer the amendment on Thursday when
the Senate Commerce Committee votes on a sweeping telecommunications bill. In his original legislation, McCain would have stripped TV stations of their federal network-nonduplication protections if
they refused to permit their cable networks to be distributed a la carte by cable and satellite companies. "Now, McCain wants to withhold so-called broadcast-flag protections as the penalty if TV
stations won't give consumers the opportunity to buy programming on a stand-alone basis," Multichannel News says.
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