Channel Choice Could Crush Cable

This column was originally published on RealMoney on Nov. 29 at 9:37 a.m. EST. It's being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers.

Just when I thought it couldn't get worse for cable, suddenly I am given choices? You have to be kidding me. Is the Federal Communications Commission really going to show that much muscle and make the cable companies unbundle channels and packages? Choice is the killer for Comcast(CMCSA Quote) and Cablevision(CVC Quote) and Time Warner(TWX Quote).

Of course, they tell you that people love choices, just love them. When I interviewed Brian Roberts for Philadelphia Magazine last year, he emphasized over and over again that what mattered was choice, that people loved to pick among lots of different offerings.

But we all know the truth. There's lots of stuff that we want, but there is much more stuff that we don't want that we have to pay for. On my dial at home, for example, from channels 15 to 37, I have bubkes, a bunch of Spanish and Korean stations and a massive amount of shopping channels. How much would I pay not to have them between the shows that I really want? And the only choice that I actually can't live without -- the NFL package -- isn't even offered on cable. ...