Lifetime a'la carte

[smokejoe]

Lifetime a 'la carte

A solution would be to offer Lifetime only as a' la carte add-on to 60 Pak or higher to subs who will pay $2, $5, $10 or whatever 'modest rate' LT demands.
As they boast, LT is a gender specialized channel - which 90+% of men and 50+% of women - including my wife, mother, mother-in-law and daughter never watch.
Additionally, after their recent greedy, slimmy and irrational campaign, hordes of their own viewers (as shown on LT's own web site*) have now dumped them.
I'd like to see Dish give LT only this option. If they have so many dedicated viewers, they'll get their $$ and the majority will not have to pay for or waste the bandwidth on 30-40 yr. old reruns which of we can get dozens on a $3.99 DVD.
*Since 70% of their own viewers blasted their actions, LT shut down it's own comment forum on the issue.

 

[iKramerica]

Most cable networks don't allow themselves to be offered a la carte. They demand to be put in tiers so that people who don't want them must pay for them.

Cable and sat companies have been trying for years to get a la carte pricing, but so far the federal government has not agreed with them, since the big multichannel cos are lining congresses pockets.

the downside is that the small channels with limited viewership would likely cease. the upside is that programming should cost less.

I watch maybe 20 channels, but I need the AT180 package to do it due to bundling contracts...

 

[CPanther95]

E* has come out in support of a la carte - as has Cablevision (along with any major consumer advocacy group who has voiced an opinion in the matter in the past 10 years). The FCC has also recently suggested that a la carte should be offered to consumers.

Most cable companies (Comcast & TWC particularly) along with D*, have become major players in the programming side, and will not likely ever support such a plan. The smaller cable companies, aside from have no clout, realize that athough a la carte would give them a tremendous amount of freedom in how they approach the market, would prefer the status quo which insures that they will be getting a cut of a growing pie as bundling continues to greatly increase the cost of entertainment per home.

 

[angiecopus]

My dad says he won't pay extra for ala carte. i would rather buy whole bunch of golden girls dvd and the nanny dvds than i would have ala carte.

 

[Stargazer]

Sorry, it just aint going to happen. Dream on.

 

[smokejoe]

Offer Lifetime Like Premium, Adult Channels

Regardless of mainstream programing practice, Lifetime, as they tout, is specialized and can easily be treated as al a carte like Adult, HBO, Showtime, locals, etc.

 

[BobMurdoch]

a la carte will never happen unless Congress or the FCC mandates it.

E* offered YES any price they wanted and offered to give them 100% of the monies generated with them only being responsible to pay the uplink costs. They rejected the offer. They wanted carriage in the AT60 tier where non Yankee fans would have to pay as well......

 

[jrbdmb]

a la carte will never happen unless Congress or the FCC mandates it.

E* offered YES any price they wanted and offered to give them 100% of the monies generated with them only being responsible to pay the uplink costs. They rejected the offer. They wanted carriage in the AT60 tier where non Yankee fans would have to pay as well......

Why do people keep repeating this bullsh*t about YES? YES Network wanted to be treated like the other two RSNs in New York, carriage on AT120. But they wanted more per sub than Dish was willing to pay. End of story.

Charlie threw out the a-la-carte bone to Yes Network, knowing full well they wouldn't take it. RSNs have learned they make more money being on a standard tier than they do as a PPV or premium service. And why should YES settle for a-la-carte when every other RSN is included in AT120?

 

[BobMurdoch]

Apologies if I heard it wrong. I don't think it was that simple or they would have had a deal by now.........

We both are agreeing on the main point though that a la carte is not desirable to the programmers unless they are forced to by law.....

 

[jerryez]

Most of you should remember when Disney was a premium channel and swithed to the basic packages because they could make more money. $1.00 per month on 200 million customers is more than 10 million at $5.00 per month or something like that.

So, Disney which owns ESPN know that ESPN would not survive as an ala carte premium.