Cable a la Carte

[niget2002]

I just wish I could choose an "English" a la carte, or a "Spanish" a la carte.

I don't speak spanish at all... why can't it be eaiser for me to go turn all of them off without having to manually go to each one?

I feel the same way about the shopping channels and the digital "music only" channels... but then, I guess if it was easier for everyone to turn of the shopping channels, none of them would exist.

Verizon Fios does have a nice little ability to only show HD channels on the Guide. The other thing they do is group all of the "like" channels next to each other on the lineup... I think being able to buy a group of channels would be nice.

My question is... when are the rest of the cable channels going to start producing HD content? And if they already are... why am I not getting them yet?

 

[aberkowitz]

Maybe the cable companies should break out their bill as some water companies do: Basic fee, meter fee, water by unit costs, up hill a lift charge, etc. then, it might get to be equitable.
But, the water company is regulated, no competition business.

It's interesting you mention a utility company, because cable companies have similar monopoly characteristics (natural monopoly due to the fact that they've laid cable/pipes/wires) to power and water companies but since they are unregulated they are free to price however they want. If you're lucky you have the choice between more than 1 provider! My cable bill has gone up by $15 since I moved into my new place last July, and I have no bleeping idea why!!

 

[mtrycrafts]

...and I have no bleeping idea why!!

Because they can

 

[chriscmore]

It's a similar situation to the record album. Folks long wondered why they should pay $18 for an album when all they wanted was 1-2 songs. Or belatedly found out that only 1-2 songs were any good and they rightly felt burned. Record companies didn't listen to the unmet needs of the consumer and they found an alternative, democratized method of getting what they really wanted: songs. Record companies still insist on making albums and fighting the voice of the customer that wants songs, portability, convenience, and per-unit cheap.

People pause and consider $18 purchases. Is it really worth it or can I live without it? Evidence cheap DVDs and Starbucks: people don't pause and consider <$10. It's disposable and if it makes them feel better they just do it. iTunes proved that $1.99 per song had much more energy behind it than $18 per album. Lately I've been gorging on $2 Rock Band downloads for songs I'd never go buy (or already have) the album for.

Cable companies face either giving the consumer what they want or finding the consumers creating their own path. Youtube, hulu, network sites, etc. allow us to get those single episodes that we want, when we want it. Folks get broadband for a variety of reasons, and will increasingly find that they are less likely to sit in front of the tube, surfing or otherwise being on someone else's schedule. They spam us with so many channels and crap, we no longer just tune in to "see what's on".

Cheers,
Chris

 

[allargon]

I'll pass on a la carte. Shopping channels actually *PAY* multichannel providers to be carried thus reducing my bill. There are enough channels in my various packages that I watch. If I were to limit myself to my top 20 or so channels my bill would be the same. ESPN would be closer to $8/mo., as that's a popular channel. CNN would be $5. Fox News would be $7. (Fox charges more than Warner. Look at the Blu-Ray market.) HBO would be a la carte would be what??? $25/mo.?

Nope. I'm not buying it would be cheaper unless I watched less than 5 channels. (I currently rotate between 50 or so out of the 300 I have.)

 

[mtrycrafts]

.... If I were to limit myself to my top 20 or so channels my bill would be the same.

Sure would like to have the chance to compare the prices between the package and the ch I would watch

 

[stratman]

I'll pass on a la carte. Shopping channels actually *PAY* multichannel providers to be carried thus reducing my bill. There are enough channels in my various packages that I watch. If I were to limit myself to my top 20 or so channels my bill would be the same. ESPN would be closer to $8/mo., as that's a popular channel. CNN would be $5. Fox News would be $7. (Fox charges more than Warner. Look at the Blu-Ray market.) HBO would be a la carte would be what??? $25/mo.?

Nope. I'm not buying it would be cheaper unless I watched less than 5 channels. (I currently rotate between 50 or so out of the 300 I have.)

Those shopping channels will still be paying "rent," whether you bought them or not, what the providers need to do is figure an "honest" ratio for individual channels, for instance provide tier packages 1-10 channels X amount, 1-20 different price, thre are so many combinations that it would take the whole day, the bottom line they're not going to do it, it'll cost them too much in revenues.

 

[stratman]

I'll pass on a la carte. Shopping channels actually *PAY* multichannel providers to be carried thus reducing my bill. There are enough channels in my various packages that I watch. If I were to limit myself to my top 20 or so channels my bill would be the same. ESPN would be closer to $8/mo., as that's a popular channel. CNN would be $5. Fox News would be $7. (Fox charges more than Warner. Look at the Blu-Ray market.) HBO would be a la carte would be what??? $25/mo.?

Nope. I'm not buying it would be cheaper unless I watched less than 5 channels. (I currently rotate between 50 or so out of the 300 I have.)

Those shopping channels will still be paying "rent," whether you bought them or not, what the providers need to do is figure an "honest" ratio for individual channels, for instance provide tier packages 1-10 channels X amount, 1-20 different price, there are so many combinations that it would take the whole day, the bottom line they're not going to do it, it'll cost them too much in revenues.

 

[Mr.M-500t]

I'm sure your scenario would intensify, but realistically the big corporations don't want snippets or animates what they want and pay for is saturation, have you ever surfed channels and caught the same commercial on two or three channels at almost the same time? The lifeline of cable/satellite TV is advertising, a la carte negates most of the profit and I can tell you all these companies have high paid lobby firms working in Washington making sure their little "empires" aren't affected by a la carte pricing.

I agree 100% stratman. Nothing is ever going to change as long as these huge corporations are in control of it all.

 

[jake5717]

How about if providers made you buy the first tier then you could just add on the channels you want. You would still get all the small channels and you could choose what big channels you want just like when you order premium movie channels. Currently I have the lowest Dish Network package which only has I think 100 channels and I'm about 99% happy with that, there are though about 3-5 channels I'd like to add. I would pay probably $10 more for the channels I want, but I won’t pay $20 more for the 147 I don’t want.