As reported by Seeking Alpha, Dish Network is celebrating a major win in the battle for a la carte TV packages that consumers (and many within the industry) have been clamoring for for years. The victory seems to be a clenching decision for what many see as a total movement away from cable, package-based TV subscriptions that have dominated cable television for decades. 

If you want to be able to select the the channels you pay for, and only those channels, you should be ecstatic about the news.

DISH Network management issued the following statement regarding the Federal District Court decision in DC this last week:

On the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (STAVRA) out of theSenate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation:

“We thank Chairman Rockefeller, Ranking Member Thune and the rest of theSenate Commerce Committee for passing bipartisan legislation that makes important reforms to the outdated laws governing todays video market, while ensuring continuity of service to more than 1.5 million distant signal subscribers who would, otherwise, lose service at the end of this year. We look forward to working with Congressional leadership to see this reauthorization swiftly passed into law, and also look forward to continuing the important discussion regarding retransmission consent reform, and in particular protecting consumers from local channel blackouts.

As you might expect, the decision likely stems from the cultural and technological shift to app-based and subscription based television that has dominated the market in recent years. While old-school executives have stagnated in moving toward a la carte television, it has become quite clear that there is more cash to be made with opening up different avenues to consumers, and some of those legal battles are finally being won on Capitol Hill.

Netflix may have started the trend, but it seems like the big boys like DISH and the like will be the ones to end it and dominate the a la carte market. Move over cable.

Categories: DISH & TV news