The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to vote today on a satellite bill without a controversial provision that would have let cable and satellite customers choose which broadcast TV channels they pay for instead of having to buy them all in a bundle.

The “Local Choice” proposal by US Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Sen. John Thune (R-SD) had been attached to the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (STAVRA), a reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act which lets satellite companies retransmit out-of-market broadcast TV channels to rural customers.

Rockefeller and Thune argued that the proposal would prevent blackouts caused by failed negotiations between TV broadcasters and pay-TV companies, such as one that led Time Warner Cable to temporarily black out CBS last year in protest of CBS price hikes. Pay-TV companies would have to offer broadcast channels to subscribers at prices set by the broadcasters and pass the fees they collect back to the TV stations.

While a trade group representing small cable companies supported this unbundling proposal because it would help them avoid bigger payments to broadcasters, it was opposed by broadcasters. Broadcasters were clearly trying to protect profits, but they claimed to be worried about viewers losing access to emergency alerts and local news.

"Lawmakers in the Senate have abandoned plans to overhaul the way people choose which television stations are part of their cable or satellite subscriptions," The Hill wrote today. "Now the panel is set to vote Wednesday on a much narrower set of reforms to the TV market—with the channels proposal notably absent."

Rockefeller said that taking Local Choice out of STAVRA was "a practical thing" since "we had to pass the underlying reauthorization," the article noted. The proposal could be taken up again next year.

The STAVRA bill being voted on today "retains some more limited reforms that were cheered by cable companies who have squared off against broadcasters, including a measure banning broadcast companies from joining to negotiate deals with cable firms unless they are owned jointly," The Hill wrote.