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A la carte pricing urged for cable TV
washingtontimes.com ^
| Nov. 29, 2005 at 1:59PM
Posted on 11/29/2005 11:20:05 AM PST by april15Bendovr
A la carte pricing urged for cable TV Nov. 29, 2005 at 1:59PM Federal regulators are calling on the cable TV industry to let viewers pay for only the channels they want to watch.
Currently, viewers' only choice of cable TV channels bundled packages, the Wall Street Journal noted.
A Federal Communications Commission report says the industry should let viewers choose and pay for individual channels, which the regulatory body says will ultimately save consumers money.
"This report will conclude that a la carte could be in the best interest of consumers," an FCC official told the Journal. The report also suggests "themed tiers" of channels, the official said.
The FCC cannot force the cable industry to change the way it does business, the Journal noted.
The industry claims a la carte programming would raise costs and ultimately reduce the number of networks offered.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cabletv
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To: april15Bendovr
Coming soon to a city near you: usdtv.com
It just arrived in Dallas. You get all the local channels
and about a dozen cables. No CNN but FOX yes.
21
posted on
11/29/2005 11:47:55 AM PST
by
kkalman
To: april15Bendovr
Yes please, I DON'T want my MTV.
22
posted on
11/29/2005 11:49:03 AM PST
by
rattrap
To: kkalman
That sounds like a good package.
To: kkalman
Coming soon to a city near you: usdtv.com It just arrived in Dallas. You get all the local channels and about a dozen cables. No CNN but FOX yes. And the Lifetime Movie Network- LOL.
24
posted on
11/29/2005 11:50:08 AM PST
by
LWalk18
To: rattrap
I used to like MTV before it went to Pathetic Dysfunctional Foul-Mouthed Poetic Diarrhea RAP music
To: LWalk18
I though Lifetime television was Hillary Clinton feminist I hate men network?
To: april15Bendovr
Currently, viewers' only choice of cable TV channels bundled packages, the Wall Street Journal noted. Which means that if I want the Military and other Discovery Channels, I have to buy an overpriced package that is full of junk channels that I don't want. I'm not paying an extra 30 bucks to get another 30 channels, 5 of which I will actually watch.
It seems to me that Discovery would have a basis for a formal complaint to the FCC, the logic being that people are passing up their channels because they're bundled in with package deals that a lot of people don't want. Therefore, the current market is hurting their ratings.
To: april15Bendovr
A la carte was what I loved about my old C-Band satellite dish. I only ordered what I wanted, and it was cheap. If I could do that with my mini dish, I'd add channels while deleting some. As it is now, I have my favorites and my wife's favorites set up, and we ignore 80% of the programming.
28
posted on
11/29/2005 11:55:17 AM PST
by
Sans-Culotte
(Meadows Place, TX-"Tom DeLay Country")
To: april15Bendovr
fifteen years ago I worked for the CAB: Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau....they'll never let this happen. Believe me.
29
posted on
11/29/2005 11:56:35 AM PST
by
Hildy
To: Sans-Culotte
Problem we have is our area doesn't have DSL yet and we are getting a package with cable through comcast.
I have heard good things and bad things about satellite dish TV.
To: Kenton
I'd rather pay $50 a month for the half dozen channels that I really want instead of paying literally over $70 to get those same channels plus the 75 garbage channels that are bundled in.
In my area, Comcast only offers Military and the Discovery Channels with their most expensive packages. It's either pay their $72.49 a month Silver plan or you're getting none of it.
To: april15Bendovr
Federal regulators are calling on the cable TV industry to let viewers pay for only the channels they want to watch.
How many people would pay to have all the shopping and infomercial channels? I would end up with around a dozen channels not the couple hundred I currently have.
32
posted on
11/29/2005 12:16:03 PM PST
by
R. Scott
(Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
To: Hildy
You are exactly right, Hildy. I worked in marketing for one of the big cable companies up until '98. It is very unlikely that this will happen, at least not in a way that is beneficial for subscribers. Not unless those subscribers want to pay fifty or sixty bucks a month for 10 or 15 channels. One thing that may compare to this is if they do an on demand/pay per view type thing for individual shows. I beleive that monthly bills would end up being higher but at least you could watch what you want when you want it. I use DVR for this function now. I watch the stuff that I have recorded at night when I have some time to sit down. That way I am not sitting and watching some crap that I am not interested in when I actually have the time to do it.
33
posted on
11/29/2005 12:16:55 PM PST
by
Big Red Clay
(Greetings from the Big Red State)
To: april15Bendovr
I remember when the Music Television Channel actually had music. I watched it back then.
34
posted on
11/29/2005 12:18:10 PM PST
by
R. Scott
(Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
To: calrighty
Cable industry won't do it.They will if it's shoved down their throats :)
35
posted on
11/29/2005 12:21:17 PM PST
by
mewzilla
(Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
To: mewzilla
Some dialog needs to be had about the rates the programmers charge the cablecos. If ESPN wants $15 a subscriber now, who gets to pay that then?
To: AT7Saluki
THis is long overdue. I only watch History Channel, Discovery
and Comedy Central as well as Cartoon network. 20 a month for those channels looks good.
I do have the fastest internet option avabile though from charter- You can't win it all.
To: april15Bendovr
I can understand being frustrated with dish/cable and the extreme $$$ they charge, but, do we REALLY want the US gov't urging businesses to alter the way they do business? I'm curious what happens if the cable/dish companies tell them to kiss their a$$. Does the gov't just shrug their shoulders and walk away, or FORCE the issue?
Just unplug the damn thing. I've been waiting for 20 years for a 'package' that makes sense to me and so far, the only thing I'm paying for is the DSL so I can get to the Internet. Every time the wife & kids and I travel we get "hotel TV" and watch Monster Garage and the History Channel which gets us in trouble because we end up being late to stuff. We'd be a mess if that stuff was pumped into the house 24-7.
38
posted on
11/29/2005 12:34:40 PM PST
by
mad puppy
( The Southern border needs to be a MAJOR issue in 2006 and 2008)
To: AT7Saluki
Some dialog needs to be had about the rates the programmers charge the cablecos. If ESPN wants $15 a subscriber now, who gets to pay that then?Leave it to the market. The price will come down to something affordable for the masses. We might even get better progamming out of this.
39
posted on
11/29/2005 12:36:10 PM PST
by
mewzilla
(Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
To: mewzilla
I will be glad to help you shove!!
40
posted on
11/29/2005 12:37:21 PM PST
by
calrighty
(. Troops BTTT)
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