Cable Providers Pressured for 'a la Carte' Programming

Agape Press ^ | 7/7/04

[discostu]

The internal tuners in the TV don't talk back to the cable company. That's how the authorization works, the cable company talks to the box and the box answers, no box no answers. Back in the old days (at least here in Tucson) there was actually an audible signal (sounded like somebody hitting 3 numbers on a phone) when the cable company was querying your box. A friend of mine has been getting free cable for 4 years because they never unhooked the jumper when the previous resident moved out, just plugged it into his cable ready TV and walla. No premium channels of course, but hey it's free.

Going to ala carte changes a lot. Even if cable ready TV could block it (which they can't) you still have all this extra data to keep track of, where as now their database lists you, your package and your premiums it would have to list how and a yes/ no for every single channel the have. Data entry isn't free, and niether is data storage. Somebody is gonna have to input all that data, verify all that data, store all that data, backup all that data, and audit all that data. Going to ala carte from packages would mean easily quadrupling the record size for a single customer, that increases costs right there. And that's long before they get around to actually transmitting anything to your house.

If ala carte was such a great idea (from the cable company's perspective) they'd be doing it, they aren't and don't want to. That tells you about the cost/ revenue picture of that.

[BrooklynGOP]

That tells you about the cost/ revenue picture of that.

Yea, I highly doubt that it would be worth it for them to put a line to your house and lend you equipment, just so they can get $5-15 a month.

[thecanuck]

While there might be fewer channels but the quality of programming on each of those channels would likely also go up as the good programs from the oddballs moved to surviving channels looking to maximize their viewership.