Cable - A La Carte?

I had a deep thought in the shower the other day:  I wish you could buy cable TV in an 'a la carte' style - just sign up and then pick the channels that you want and you just pay per channel, so you get exactly what you want and only PAY for what you want.

I have a whole bunch of channels that are part of the package I had to buy in order to get Discovery, History, TLC, etc. that I don't EVER watch and don't even like.  Why am I paying for them??

I would save so much money if I could just pay my bill as an 'a la carte' customer!  Here are the only channels I would need:

• ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX
• History
• Discovery
• TLC
• ESPN
• BRAVO
• Military History
• HGTV
• Sundance
• IFC

Yep, I think that pretty much covers it - all of my shows are on those channels.  I would be happy as a clam with just a DVR and the channels above - and I would save a crap-ton of money.  Oh wait, that's probably why they don't allow you to do it!  DANG.