Ala Carte programming
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I suppose new channels could start out offering theirs for free for customers to try them out?
Most any of the receivers you see advertised on Amazon, eBay or through online retailers are outright purchases. Only DIRECTV cut off purchasing for non-employees/non-MDU types.
Think about it, If Direct, Dish, Comcast and others ditched the HD Fee, equipment lease fee, whole home DVR Fee then less people would ditch paid tv service. It's not only channels that people don't watch but all those fees. I think Ala Carte will end up costing the same or close to what people are paying.
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Most the costs and fees come from two sources. Company overhead to cover basic operating costs(techs, equipment, maintenance, call centers, training, salaries etc), and a lot of the fees for pckages pay for the contracted channels. Dish did offer the "Dish-Picks" for some time, but did stop due to the networks demand. Think about Viacom. I pretty much watch spike and Comedy Central. Hate MtV and BET. I have to have both. Viacom gets paid for both, whether I watch or not. With picks, I could have CC and Spike. That's a lot of lost revenue for their other [23] channels. They are going to force requested channels on higher pckages, knowing you want them, to get paid for their lower unrequested channels. Disney does the same thing. I have no kids, yet to get the single ESPN channel I want, I have to have 30 kids channels(exaggeration), and they still get their money. So this is not necessarily something against the transmission companies such as Dish and DTV. This is largely to due with just meeting costs and doing what a good business should do. Make money.
As far as saying "government should force them to not be able to do contracts", that's just dumb. I'm contracted to pay for my car on a monthly plan, till paid off, because of a contract I signed. I do not have $20k to give a dealership on the spot. If you want no commitment in your rural area, get dish, pay the fees for the equipment purchase MSRP, and go month to month with them. You will get no promotions, no benefits, and you have pckages ranging from $19.99 up to $134.99. As mentioned in another thread, TV is a luxury. If you want more then OTA, then you py for it on their conditions or you don't get it. I want a Ferrari, but I can only afford a Chevy. Not even a 'Vette. So, no sympathy or empathy here, and that argument is moot.
Lastly, if TV were to go fully ala carte as requested, do you think those programmers are going to give up their revenue to pay their actors/directors/producers and high life styles? They will raise their rates on single channels to offset their overhead. Right now, I beleive ESPN is $5 per sub. Go solely ala carte and you may py $30 for a ESPN package monthly. Same with Disney, Viacom channels, and all those other companies. Thanks to pay TV, the cord cutters are getting the better deal, but when the green weenie comes knocking, they will make sure to keep their profits. The cable providers such as Comcast and TWC and Cox are all starting to limit data caps. Now think about that on two levels. Gamers playing online, can easily use 300/400gb of data a month. Your typical HD movie is 2-4 GB(and 4k is coming out will be larger), so reaching 750/1000gbs of usuage a month in a normal household of husband and wife between the ages of 18-34(key demographic), you will be throttled. No tv or gaming. If they pass the buck to the customer and allow higher threshholds, you are now going to see Internet only accounts at $150-200 per month to keep their revenue alive. When you cut cost in one place(in ridiculously large numbers of people per capita), tou still pay it elsewhere. And then you will be here complaining about how much internet cost, and why there aren't more options in the boonies. It is a ridiculous argument to make. It is a luxury, treat it as such, and if you do not like it, move on. Watch paint dry for all I care. That's only $20 for a can of paint.
As far as saying "government should force them to not be able to do contracts", that's just dumb. I'm contracted to pay for my car on a monthly plan, till paid off, because of a contract I signed. I do not have $20k to give a dealership on the spot. If you want no commitment in your rural area, get dish, pay the fees for the equipment purchase MSRP, and go month to month with them. You will get no promotions, no benefits, and you have pckages ranging from $19.99 up to $134.99. As mentioned in another thread, TV is a luxury. If you want more then OTA, then you py for it on their conditions or you don't get it. I want a Ferrari, but I can only afford a Chevy. Not even a 'Vette. So, no sympathy or empathy here, and that argument is moot.
Lastly, if TV were to go fully ala carte as requested, do you think those programmers are going to give up their revenue to pay their actors/directors/producers and high life styles? They will raise their rates on single channels to offset their overhead. Right now, I beleive ESPN is $5 per sub. Go solely ala carte and you may py $30 for a ESPN package monthly. Same with Disney, Viacom channels, and all those other companies. Thanks to pay TV, the cord cutters are getting the better deal, but when the green weenie comes knocking, they will make sure to keep their profits. The cable providers such as Comcast and TWC and Cox are all starting to limit data caps. Now think about that on two levels. Gamers playing online, can easily use 300/400gb of data a month. Your typical HD movie is 2-4 GB(and 4k is coming out will be larger), so reaching 750/1000gbs of usuage a month in a normal household of husband and wife between the ages of 18-34(key demographic), you will be throttled. No tv or gaming. If they pass the buck to the customer and allow higher threshholds, you are now going to see Internet only accounts at $150-200 per month to keep their revenue alive. When you cut cost in one place(in ridiculously large numbers of people per capita), tou still pay it elsewhere. And then you will be here complaining about how much internet cost, and why there aren't more options in the boonies. It is a ridiculous argument to make. It is a luxury, treat it as such, and if you do not like it, move on. Watch paint dry for all I care. That's only $20 for a can of paint.
Trying to fake people out works for a while but in the end, they'll get their pound of flesh.
Charging specifically for hardware is the only way to know that you're not paying for it in the programming costs. If you had only one receiver, you would pay the same as someone who had six and that's hardly fair.
The point is how the company act in favor of the end-user customer. For example in the last situation w/Disney-ABC negotiation. It would have been a good opportunity to make ESPN suite channel in extension of each America Top Package. [ For example; AT125 $49.99 or AT125 plus for $64.00 (Including, All ESPN, RSN, FS2, Other sport channels)] [AT250 $59.99 or AT250 plus for $74.99 (Including, All ESPN, RSN, FS2, Other sport channels)]. Situation like AMC offered all channel in all AT package but also a la carte for non AT customers.
Now, other point is other company like Verizon, and same channels content (like Viacom and HBO) will make their services near a la carte or package via internet, opportunity that DISH will lost in the past, and now if no make a big change in the future, the "count customer" will be reduced.
Theme packs is a great idea, for a over the top package, example; a small package that including general and some education channels, Theses classic channels (base programing, or since 80's and 90's in the air); like a Dish America package (TNT, FX, Discover, History, CNN, Food) and over this package will add other interest channel, like SPORT package, KIDS package or Heartland Package, for example, other a only non international Hispanic package a special Dish Latino that non including sport and international latin channel for example (Univision, Discovery en espanol, Discovery Familia, History, Natgeo Mundo, Cinelatino, De Pelicula, CNN ñ, ect).
All is about option, and not only A la carte.
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One point is that the providers need or "create the power" to make a great decision. For example, liberty (yes, the remanent of TCI) a cable tv in Puerto Rico does not including for months ago all channel from Viacom, the decision was make for various point, including the fact that Viacom will be offered their channel via internet (a indirect competition). Now with this example Viacom will be offered their channel in near-a-la-carte mode but with a cable provider NO?
Yep, for instance it has been guessed that possibly ESPN/Disney might want $30/month just for their services.
But I'm of the mind that since few would be willing to pony up that much just for what they offer, that price would tumble in a hurry.
What would likely happen is the snobs asking for just their channels would find themselves watching what the mass market watches as the niche or less popular as a whole gets shed.
Can h2 survive on its own or does big foot mama on history get better ratings? How about another cop drama or CSI type show or honey booboo? Bachelorette? Look at the general crap that gets ratings and realize that is what will be left when the dust settles.
Some will survive, Disney as an example, regardless and the same with espn but maybe the college sports get less air. Especially the division 2 or anything not in the top 20.
I think most people have this grand vision that they could get away with paying for 5 or 10 channels for 25 or 40a month plus HBO at 17 and save. Not going to happen as everyone in the money chain doesn't want that to happen. No one benefits.
Can h2 survive on its own or does big foot mama on history get better ratings? How about another cop drama or CSI type show or honey booboo? Bachelorette? Look at the general crap that gets ratings and realize that is what will be left when the dust settles.
Some will survive, Disney as an example, regardless and the same with espn but maybe the college sports get less air. Especially the division 2 or anything not in the top 20.
I think most people have this grand vision that they could get away with paying for 5 or 10 channels for 25 or 40a month plus HBO at 17 and save. Not going to happen as everyone in the money chain doesn't want that to happen. No one benefits.
CBS has announced that it will be available for streaming at $6 per month. That's a pretty good example of ala carte pricing. Of course if it was on your cable/sat provider it would cost a little more because they would need a profit as well.
Yeah I'm not sure what he is thinking he didn't make any sense. $6 for that station is a rip off. It would be $24 just for the networks a month which is almost the same s starting packages which include much more.
People can't math I guess
I have a feeling that true ala carte would end up costing just as much or more for less channels -- but what about what they do in Canada with the theme packages? There's a very reasonable base package (it was like $14.99 the last time I checked) which has the locals, public interest, and 5 or 10 of the main "must have" cable channels -- then it's priced on a "pick X" model -- single themes cost a fixed price, 3 themes are a few cents cheaper each, pick 5 themes and the overall price per theme goes down a little more, pick 7 and each one goes down a little more, and the Everything package is a set rate rate that provides enough savings for all 10 that you may consider it if you are stuck on the fence between maybe wanting a few of the channels that aren't in the 7 theme package...
That seems to make the most sense to me as it still allows the smaller channels to get exposure (e.g. History and H2 would still be in the Culture theme package), yet still allows you to get rid of the channels that you absolutely don't need -- e.g. I have no kids, so the Kids theme goes away; I also wouldn't want Women & lifestyle, Extended Sports etc...
Comcast tried something called My TV (or My Way TV) IIRC -- and it looked like it was going in the right direction, but the "base packages" were way too large, and the themes were a flat $10 per theme -- but there was no discount the more you purchased -- and there were NO promos available... the price came out to about 3 bucks less than their regular digital tier -- which could make sense if you picked some channels that were in the Premier tier and dropped some that weren't -- but Comcast runs some MAJOR annual promos, and it's a simple call to get them to extend their deals, so it made no sense to get the package when they had no promos on it, and you could get the full Premier tier for a few bucks less for a year, then negotiate it down again when the promo was up ($99 for high speed internet plus Digital Premier)... So the package disappeared pretty quickly.
That seems to make the most sense to me as it still allows the smaller channels to get exposure (e.g. History and H2 would still be in the Culture theme package), yet still allows you to get rid of the channels that you absolutely don't need -- e.g. I have no kids, so the Kids theme goes away; I also wouldn't want Women & lifestyle, Extended Sports etc...
Comcast tried something called My TV (or My Way TV) IIRC -- and it looked like it was going in the right direction, but the "base packages" were way too large, and the themes were a flat $10 per theme -- but there was no discount the more you purchased -- and there were NO promos available... the price came out to about 3 bucks less than their regular digital tier -- which could make sense if you picked some channels that were in the Premier tier and dropped some that weren't -- but Comcast runs some MAJOR annual promos, and it's a simple call to get them to extend their deals, so it made no sense to get the package when they had no promos on it, and you could get the full Premier tier for a few bucks less for a year, then negotiate it down again when the promo was up ($99 for high speed internet plus Digital Premier)... So the package disappeared pretty quickly.
Fully ala carte is not a viable, but as a option is great, for example if Dish still have DishPick $15.00 for 10 channel + $9.99 for access/local/PI/Shopping fees there a good option for me:
1. TNT 2.FX, 3.USA 4.Sy-Fy 5.TBS 6.Lifetime 7.REELZ 8.History 9.AXS 10.Destination America; [any other channel w/ the option if available of $2.00+ per channel.] my package cost $29.99. 9 of theses channel are in the next current package AT125 for only $54.99.
make your calculation.
Associated Press ran an article today on the subject of a la carte and how it doesn't represent big savings over conventional pay tv bundles.
http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495...te-Glance/id-18dc58c993e14dc5b6498009e9846981
Of course this assumes that you don't have to pay for basic cable that will set you back upwards of $30 just to get your local channels.
http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495...te-Glance/id-18dc58c993e14dc5b6498009e9846981
Of course this assumes that you don't have to pay for basic cable that will set you back upwards of $30 just to get your local channels.
out of context?
FROM the link:
Average cable subscription (combined price of basic service and the most subscribed cable programming service excluding taxes, fees and equipment charges): $64.41, per the FCC.
Average satellite subscription (combined price of basic service and the most subscribed cable programming service excluding taxes, fees and equipment charges): DirecTV $63.99; DISH Network $59.99, per the FCC.
Total for all four services: $37.97 (CBS, future HBO streaming,HULU, NETFLIX).
but add the costo of HBO of the average cable sub or satelite sub. to balance the last 37.97.
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