$19.99 Family Pack

[jeffwtux]

Disney is making an exception for "Family Tiers" where they will allow other Disney properties without ESPN. But only as a compromise to try and avoid more pressure toward a la carte.
Don't expect these family tiers to be a bargain - they will be priced to discourage any meaningful number of subscribers. Those that do subscribe will be much more heavily contributing to the bottom line of programmers and MSOs.

I don't see Charlie doing that. He has been railing about ESPN for years now. If he makes his family pack a bad value, he will only be playing int ESPN/Disney's hand. If he wants to stick it to ESPN/Disney he will make his family pack a decent value so that people will subsribe to it.

 

[CPanther95]

Again, this isn't about decency or family values at all. Cable/DBS companies are pulling ESPN out of the family pack because ESPN's cost has gotten way out of hand and they are circumventing the capitalistic system. Now that people will see that ESPN was the reason their cable/DBS bills have been skyrocketing, they will decide wheter or not the price they are asking is worth it. Free Market capitalism will take hold and all the worlds problems will be solved.

ESPN will not be included because of live sports.

Cable/Sat companies can't pull ESPN out of any package unless Disney allows them to. The problem is 25 family tier offerings around the country that all happen to be missing The Disney Channel would bring more scrutiny to Disney than they would like to answer for.

 

[CPanther95]

I don't see Charlie doing that. He has been railing about ESPN for years now. If he makes his family pack a bad value, he will only be playing int ESPN/Disney's hand. If he wants to stick it to ESPN/Disney he will make his family pack a decent value so that people will subsribe to it.

What you don't know is at what rate Disney will price the Disney Channel for an ESPN-less subscriber. Or what AOL/Time Warner will charge for Cartoon Network without CNN, etc.

E* is under contract to provide carriage at certain levels - the family tier will require negotiations with the programmers in order to put a package together (at least if any of the channels are among the 90% controlled by 5 companies)

If Charlie wants to make a point, he'd roll-out the family tier, but push hard for a la carte as the only system that can truly provide what the consumer wants.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Undoubtably E* will not want to make its $19.99 Family Pack to be overly attractive. Why would they do that? To get a lot of people at AT60 to downgrade?

However I'm sure there is an untapped market out there for a $19.99/mon TV option. A lot of people can't afford cable or D*/E*. If Charlie can get them to put up an E* dish then odds are that he'll make some money off of them now and entice some of them to upgrade later.

Plus, he does get the Feds off of his back by making it available at a very low price. He'll look like a good guy next to Rupert's $34.99 offering.

 

[Stargazer]

Disney will either have to make an exception or get left out of the satellite family packs. Too bad Disney, its your choice. Those type of tactics will not and cannot work in this case. They would probably want to charge more for not taking the other channels which would raise the Family Packages too much.

I wonder if Dish Network would be allowed to offer two family packages (one that is the same price as AT60 for $30 without locals).

 

[CPanther95]

Disney will either have to make an exception or get left out of the satellite family packs. Too bad Disney, its your choice.

You're missing the point. E* cannot "leave out" Disney, or ESPN from the family pack unless Disney says it's OK to do so. You are right that it's Disney's choice to make an exception - something they will do to avoid a push toward a la carte - but what's in the family pack, and at what price is up to the networks to decide and negotiate new terms with the MSOs.

If all it took to sidestep the bundling requirements was to start up a new tier and give it a different name, E* would have done so with a wide variety of packages.

 

[iKramerica]

Since FamPack is a subset of AT60 and others, can they, at no cost, make one receiver FamPack only? Say, for a kid's playroom? Or have a built in Lock feature that let's you lock out non-FamPack movies from a receiver, including taking them out of the guide? Even V-Chip can't really do that easily.

 

[Mr Tony]

Since FamPack is a subset of AT60 and others, can they, at no cost, make one receiver FamPack only? Say, for a kid's playroom?

how would they do that? A separate account. Thats the only way to have 2 different packages

Or have a built in Lock feature that let's you lock out non-FamPack movies from a receiver, including taking them out of the guide? Even V-Chip can't really do that easily.

um, the receivers do. Its called channel locks. Lock the channels out via the receiver and say "hide locked". Voila....not in guide

 

[Mr Tony]

I have a feeling this family pack might be nice, but wont allow you to add ANYTHING except for locals (maybe Supers)

StarChoice has the same thing. A Basic package for 20 bucks Canadian and you cant add ANYTHING to it.

 

[CPanther95]

I wonder if you'll be able to add Extasy to the Family Pack?

 

[MikeD-C05]

I wonder if you'll be able to add Extasy to the Family Pack?

The family that "plays" together stays together. :devil:

 

[jbcheshire]

You're missing the point. E* cannot "leave out" Disney, or ESPN from the family pack unless Disney says it's OK to do so. You are right that it's Disney's choice to make an exception - something they will do to avoid a push toward a la carte - but what's in the family pack, and at what price is up to the networks to decide and negotiate new terms with the MSOs.

If all it took to sidestep the bundling requirements was to start up a new tier and give it a different name, E* would have done so with a wide variety of packages.

I don't undertand this reasoning...
Why does Disney have the say in this and not the sat/cable provider? Can't they (sat/cable) create their own "family pack" without including disney's channels and call it/them a "Family Pack"???

 

[CPanther95]

Not if E* signed a contract guaranteeing that 100% of their subscribers would subscribe to ESPN. They would be violating their contract. ESPN/Disney have the most draconian terms in their contracts - which is why ESPN has obtained over 90 million subscribers (out of 110 million households) despite only 1 in 7 being at least an occasional viewer.

Disney has to make an exception for the family packs since it is their last ditch attempt to avoid a la carte. The fact that Disney channels are conspicuously absent (from E*'s family pack) must mean they have not yet come to terms with them as to the channels and pricing.

It is also possible that Charlie is rolling out an inexpensive family pack as a challenge to Disney - knowing that the best case scenario would be to pull the family pack because they are being sued by Disney for breach of contract.

I would bet that D* is paying a substantial premium for Disney Channels being offered without ESPN - probably very close to what it would cost with ESPN included.

 

[BFG]

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