I’ve been a fan of RFD-TV since long before I started in agriculture journalism a little over 10 years ago. Even as the Redding Record Searchlight’s county government reporter, I found the network’s rural-oriented programming informative, as they covered topics important to many of my readers.

RFD, of course, has long been a home to Farm Progress’ own Max Armstrong, whose show, “This Week in Agribusiness,” includes newsmaker interviews with guests about trade, weather pressures and a host of other issues on the farm.

But cable and satellite companies, it seems, aren’t as interested in the network, or they don’t think their customers are. In 2014, Comcast removed RFD-TV from some of its cable systems and added Al-Jazeera America, which is now defunct. As of 2015, the network was available in only about 40 percent of American homes, according to TV By The Numbers.

“Simply put, the networks that lag on the distribution front and regularly scratch in the Nielsen ratings have almost zero in the way of leverage with their distributors,” AdAge’s Anthony Crupi wrote in 2017.

Now RFD-TV is looking to Congress for help. This summer, the network has been heavily promoting a bill by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., called the Agricultural News and Rural Content Act of 2019.

Reminiscent of the early-1990s “must-carry” legislation that sought to help smaller local broadcasters gain access, Rogers’ bill would force cable and satellite companies with more than 5,000 subscribers to devote at least 1 percent of their channel space to “programming that predominantly serve(s) the needs and interests of rural America,” the text reads.

With all the critical issues that face rural America right now, any effort to educate as many people as possible about these issues is worthwhile. But considering the current state of the cable industry, one has to wonder if RFD-TV isn’t essentially suing to board the Titanic – after it hit the iceberg.

There were 33 million cord-cutters in the U.S. at the end of 2018, and that number is expected to jump to as many as 55.1 million by 2022, according to industry trackers. Nearly everyone 34 and younger accesses TV content through the internet.

So RFD-TV may find a really comfortable chair in the parlor, but the ship is sinking. There are plenty of life rafts this time, however.

If "rural America's most important network" really wants to preserve itself for the next generation, it should 1) include the Cowboy Channel in its Country Club streaming service, and 2) make the service's mobile app available on phones and tablets so we don't have to access it through a browser. That way, a grower could more easily watch "Market Day Report" in the cab of his or her tractor while working in the field, no cable required.

I believe direct distribution is the future of media, and I suspect network creator Patrick Gottsch would have a much easier time negotiating carriage deals with us viewers than with all those cable-cartel suits in New York.