Yesterday I wrote about an important opportunity for making cable TV a bit more progressive - the possibility of replacing Tucker Carlson with a progressive on MSNBC.  The comments on that post showed clearly that there are a lot of people thinking about how to make cable more progressive - ranging from a wide-ranging debate on who should represent progressives on cable TV, to a thoughtful post on how to schedule a progressive evening lineup, and more.  I think this kind of energy is really valuable, and I hope that it's not wasted on MSNBC.  While the channel does appear willing to experiment with progressive voices, it will never be a reliable progressive cable channel, and we shouldn't expect it to be.  Instead, we should be planning to create our own progressive cable channel.  Luckily, recent FCC rulings have just made that a little bit easier.

On Wednesday, the FCC slashed rates on leased cable access to 10 cents per subscriber per month.  With leased access, independent programmers can pay to gain access to part of a cable carrier's lineup.  Rates on leased access were about four times higher prior to Wednesday's decision.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've exchanged a few emails with Bob Fertik, President of Democrats.com, about the FCC's various efforts to regulate cable.  We both agree that this decision opens a door for liberal entrepreneurs to begin laying the groundwork for a national progressive cable news channel.  (And I should also give credit to a friend of Bob, who spoke to me about some of the broad outlines of a strategy for progressive cable, which I outline below.)  The basic strategy is simple: line up prime time leased access on cable channels in a number of major media markets, and put progressive programming in that time.  If that strategy can succeed with representation in many major markets, then we might be able to leverage it into a dedicated national channel.  While the strategy is simple, it's certainly not easy.  Over the flip, I'll have more on what we will need to pull together to get this idea to be successful, and opportunities for liberal entrepreneurs to make money while creating a national progressive cable network.

There's more...