Wouldn't you? Why buy the whole smorgasbord when you only use the melba toast, raspberry jam and butter? I'm surprised only 52 percent of the people surveyed in this Zogby study said they would like to buy their cable programming channel-by-channel instead of in one big lump the way cable companies make us do it now. The Federal Communications Commission has been talking about requiring a la carte programming for months, but I'd be surprised if they do anything about it. We're already starting to get a la carte cable TV anyway -- over the Internet.

Cable subscribers who only watch a few channels out of the bundle they purchase from their cable provider are hoping efforts by the Federal Communications Commission could make “a la carte cable” a reality—purchasing channels individually instead of in bulk packages is preferred by more than half the nation’s cable subscribers, a new Zogby Interactive poll shows.

Fifty-two percent of cable subscribers said they would prefer to buy individual channels, while 35% favor the current bulk package system. Another 12% were undecided about which channel system they would prefer.

Though overall, slightly more than half readily say they would prefer an a la carte option, the survey shows a high level of dissatisfaction with the idea of paying for channels that may only make an appearance on the screen as viewers flip past them – 71% say they disagree with having to pay for cable channels they don’t watch, and nearly half (46%) strongly disagree. But when it comes to the cost of cable television, most subscribers (82%) agree the cost of cable television service is too high, with 46% who say the current cost is much too high.