A great point was made above. When someone like Turner signs an NBA contract for millions of dollars, that pretty much ends any chance of them allowing A La Carte, they need to be in a full package. They know just like the RSN's know A La Carte could put them out of business if they have expensive contracts and people can decide not to buy, because that means people who do want it would pay far more, in many cases more than they will be pay.
I'm betting the Government is not getting involved in mandating A La Carte at the least not at this time. Even if they do you have no idea what that could mean, with the legislation that could follow what the Cable industry lobbyists want.
I'll go one step more, I bet if the Government was not involved now or only marginally and instead the marketplace determined delivery and cost we would be paying less. It might mean less choices of programming, but that would be the marketplace determining that, not something artificial that drives up the cost.