That's it, we're moving to Canada. Rogers Communications announced this week that it will begin offering an a la carte cable package to its Canadian customers, letting people decide which channels they want. Everyone will get the Digital Starter pack, a standard set of 86 channels for $20.29 a month — that's how you'll get things like public access and whatever the Canadian version of C-SPAN is — but you can then add on 15, 20, or 30 more from over 100 channel options, starting at $26.38 more per month.
What's so surprising about this, really, is that it's taking so long for cable companies to hear consumers' cries for a cheaper, get-what-you-pay-for TV package. Even this time, Rogers only acted at the behest of the Canadian government, which required cable operators to look into the possibility of "flexible TV packaging." And this solution isn't even permanent — it's running until March 2012, as a pilot program for the company. We'll be watching this test carefully over the coming months, though, and crossing our fingers hoping a la carte cable makes its way to the US too.
(Thanks, SteveB2!)