Why TV broadcasters are suddenly sounding a lot like cable companies

Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and John Thune (R-SD) rolled out a plan that, if passed, would dramatically reshape the economics of television. The idea is to unbundle broadcast programming so that individual consumers could pick -- and pay for directly -- only the channels that they want to watch.

Broadcasters oppose the idea because it would limit their ability to extract revenue from big, wealthy cable companies. But in challenging the proposal, the broadcasters are actually sounding a lot like their negotiating partners in the pay-TV industry. In opposition to the proposal, broadcasters said the bill "will lead to higher prices and less program diversity," said Gordon Smith, chief executive of the National Association of Broadcasters. TV Freedom, which represents broadcast affiliates, state broadcast associations and the NAB, among others, called the plan -- known as Local Choice -- a "pay-TV giveaway." It so happens that the broadcasters' language is the same, down to the word, as the rhetoric that cable companies use.