Cable industry says a-la carte pricing results in higher prices.

[toucan-man]

What I always hear is "I can't give up ESPN". "I can't give up (fill in the blank)". Give subscription television credit for setting the hook and reeling you in, and in such a way as to get you to stay, if not upgrade.

If you make "must have" channels available a la carte, the Extreme Poodle Clipping Channel bites the dust. What a pity that would be.

 

[riffjim4069]

Man I argued this exact same thing on another board, I got flamed so bad I quit going there.
I am just happy that there are others who see the light, seams most here are enlightened, I have said it before I am so glad to be in this community.

Terry

Ditto! Of the 20-25 channels we watch:

- 10 are "must haves"
- 4 of the "must haves" are ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC (which we also receive via OTA)
- 70% of our time is spent viewing the free network broadcasters
- 20+% of our time is spent viewing the 6 "must have" cable favorites
- Less than 10% of our time is spent viewing another 15 cable favorites that we could live without
- We have a TivoHD and Sony HD DVR to receive/record OTA

In a nutshell, we're paying $80 to watch 6 channels. We would gladly pay someone $30 for a six channel HD lineup ($5 per channel) and come out $50 ahead. (FNC, TNT, ESPN, Lifetime, Versus, Discovery)

 

[milepost72]

I am just about to the point, the shows on cable are getting so crappy and dumbed down. I'm considering upgrading my 31" KU FTA Dish up to a 6' BUD with a C/KU LNB, scan in what FTA C-Band I can get to compliment what I already watch on KU, yank my cable subscription and go out and buy a good heavy-duty rooftop antenna with a rotator and a strong booster, and never pay for TV again, FTA off the dish and OTA off the rooftop antenna. I can always wait for American Loggers and Ice Road Truckers to come out on DVD boxsets and watch them that way. I pay way too much for the way too few channels I watch. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[DiscoLoveGrapes]

What I always hear is "I can't give up ESPN". "I can't give up (fill in the blank)". Give subscription television credit for setting the hook and reeling you in, and in such a way as to get you to stay, if not upgrade.

Exactly. When I mentioned canning cable to save money to some people, Much of the response was "I only get it for ESPN," along with a few "I'd miss the Twins" or "I like having a cable news channel." I'm not a sports junkie, although I WOULD watch the MN Twins more if I had cable, so I can't empathize with this too much. And cable news is absolute trash: Prime time is filled with people screeching about politics, useless celebrity gossip posing as news, or "Breaking News" about police chases in California. (another reason to get FTA: mHz Worldview and Al Jazeera beat the pants off the big three anyday)

This all reminds me so much of Blockbuster 10 years ago: People sick of paying $6 for a new release rental, needing it back there in less than 24 hours (I once it to have it back the next morning to avoid a fine.) and fining people anyway because the kid at the counter forgot to scan it in correctly. When other options came out, they started dying off.

As for the oft-quoted claim that a la carte will cost more: That's like forcing people to buy jumbo-sized Peanut Butter/Jelly combos from Costco. People are willing to pay for convenience, and giving people 25 channels they'll likely watch for $40 will beat out paying $65 for 150 channels of crap.

 

[Bill_KY]

go out and buy a good heavy-duty rooftop antenna with a rotator and a strong booster, and never pay for TV again,

I get two markets with my OTA antenna with outdoor booster. I get Cincinnati and Dayton, you might get two or three (or more) markets depending where you are at. Where in KY are you? I am near Cincinnati.

 

[toucan-man]

Cable says one thing, Google says another. Here's an article with a different spin on things:

"...If the web could deliver just the channels you wanted, instead of paying an average of $71 a month to cable, you'd probably be willing to go to ESPN's website and pay $4 a month, or to USA and paying it 55 cents. For extras? You'd go to iTunes or Netflix for video on demand..."

Link:

Google TV changes the game for TV Everywhere, STB players, consumers - FierceOnlineVideo

To paraphrase from The Wizard of Oz:

"...I'm melting! Melting! Oh, what a world, what a world! Who would've thought a good little Google like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness? I'm gone! I'm gone! I'm going!"

Goodbye, cable...

 

[Radioguy41]

The cable industries arguement to the FCC a couple of years ago was that if ala-carte was forced on them then many channels would go belly up (like that's a bad thing!). In a round-about way they admit they're forced packaging is supporting the garbage that should fail. Once upon a time channels succeeded or failed based on how many viewers it attracted. That's what drove programming. Today, with all the cable companies stuffing their service with any kind of garbage it can find just so it can increment the number of channels it offers, that's no longer the case. Instead of monitoring actual viewership they can just tote up the number of subscribers to each cable company that carries them and use that number which is hogwash. As far as prices going up with ala-carte, that's baloney. The day ala-carte would go into effect is the day competition would come back into the equation and competition drives prices down not up.

 

[Radioguy41]

I get two markets with my OTA antenna with outdoor booster. I get Cincinnati and Dayton, you might get two or three (or more) markets depending where you are at. Where in KY are you? I am near Cincinnati.

I live in northeast Pennsylvania. I have an antenna out on top of the shed, with a mast-mount booster and a rotor. I pick up 43 stations. One of them actually carries the ION HD movies on one of their subs.

 

[steelypip]

We actually dropped DirecTV last month because I got tired of paying $70+ for five channels of non-high-def content. I'll be putting that money toward an FTA reciever package for the BUD in the back yard after I get a good OTA antenna up (we're on top of a hill - I anticipate excellent reception).

If they want my business, they're going to have to unbundle - the list of channels I have zero interest in is long.

 

[guapoharry]

The cable industries arguement to the FCC a couple of years ago was that if ala-carte was forced on them then many channels would go belly up (like that's a bad thing!). In a round-about way they admit they're forced packaging is supporting the garbage that should fail. Once upon a time channels succeeded or failed based on how many viewers it attracted. That's what drove programming. Today, with all the cable companies stuffing their service with any kind of garbage it can find just so it can increment the number of channels it offers, that's no longer the case. Instead of monitoring actual viewership they can just tote up the number of subscribers to each cable company that carries them and use that number which is hogwash. As far as prices going up with ala-carte, that's baloney. The day ala-carte would go into effect is the day competition would come back into the equation and competition drives prices down not up.

Wow. That's so true about how compulsary packaging supports mediocre channels...