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Cable companies announce ‘family tier’ channels [in weak bid to head off "a la carte" pressure]
Baptist Press News ^ | January 3, 2006 | Dwayne Hastings

Posted on 01/04/2006 12:38:41 PM PST by Constitutionalist Conservative

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The nation’s two largest cable providers, as promised, have announced the makeup of their “family-friendly” programming tiers.

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, announced its new “family tier” package Dec. 22, selecting Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, Nick Games & Sports, National Geographic, Science Channel, Discovery Kids, PBS’ Kid’s Sprout, Food Network, HGTV, DIY Network, CNN Headline News, The Weather Channel, C-SPAN, C-SPAN 2 and Trinity Broadcasting.

Time Warner, the second-largest cable company, announced earlier that its family tier would feature Disney Channel, Toon Disney, Nick Games & Sports, Boomerang, Science Channel, Discovery Kids, Food Network, HGTV, DIY Network, FIT-TV, La Familia, CNN Headline News, The Weather Channel, C-SPAN 2 and C-SPAN 3.

A trade group for the cable industry announced Dec. 12 that several cable companies, including Comcast and Time Warner, would roll out a pricing model that features family-friendly programming in early 2006. Cable operators are hopeful the move will help derail the Federal Communications Commission’s support for a plan that would give consumers even more choice over what cable channels they could purchase individually.

“Offering a Family Tier to our customers is one more step in Comcast’s efforts to provide a broad array of family-friendly programming,” Steve Burke, the company’s chief operating officer, said in a news release. The company said its family selections “primarily feature TV-G content” and “meet existing contractual programming requirements.”

Comcast’s Family Tier bundle is expected to cost $14.95, while the Time Warner Cable Family Choice package will be priced at $12.99.

The family tiers are an add-on to both Comcast and Time Warner basic service tiers, which the companies say federal law requires, with households required to pay a monthly fee for a digital cable set-top box.

The basic service tier, which customers must buy if they are to have cable in their home, includes local broadcast stations and public/educational and government access channels.

This required tier includes Fox Broadcasting Company, whose programs are often targeted by family activists for their offensive content, plus ABC, CBS, NBC, UPN, WB and PBS.

Time Warner’s announcement prompted Brent Bozell of the Parents Television Council to charge that the company is “deliberately offering a product designed to fail.” Bozell noted that, according to Time Warner, no family would want to watch sports, classic movies, religious programming or “any news channel other than Time Warner’s CNN.” Comcast also lacks a sports channel on its family tier.

Channels such as Animal Planet, History Channel, Travel Channel, the Game Show Network and ESPN that are not on either company’s family tier are “appropriate for family viewing,” Bozell continued, calling Time Warner’s family tier “a very bad joke” and more evidence that “it is families, not the industry, that should decide what is appropriate family programming.”

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said, “If nothing else, this announcement by Comcast and Time Warner reminds us that the final responsibility for a family’s welfare rests with parents.

“Existing technology within cable boxes, as well as the v-chip within most televisions, allows parents to control what programs can be seen on the television in their home,” Land said.

“Parents understand the importance of controlling their families’ television viewing even if they don’t grasp the power of the technology they literally have in their hands,” he continued, citing a recent survey that showed nine out of 10 parents use some type of control to manage what their children see on TV.

The poll, conducted by Russell Research in mid-November, revealed most parents rely on their presence in the room to control what is on the set. A much smaller number, 17 percent, report using cable controls; fewer still, 5 percent, utilize their TV’s V-Chip as a tool to regulate what programs their children watch.

The V-Chip, installed in televisions beginning in 2000 at the government’s insistence, allows shows to be blocked using the program’s rating and parameters established by parents.

“The more choices parents have, the more empowered they are to make the best choices for their family,” Land said.

Land also indicated he was pleased that Comcast included a faith-based channel in its family tier offering.

Glenn Britt, chairman and CEO of Time Warner, said the company’s Family Choice Tier was designed “so viewers could be reasonably assured that no objectionable programs would turn up in the mix.

“Accordingly, we selected channels that were G-rated in nature, did not include ‘live’ entertainment programming and which contained content that was generally perceived as acceptable for the entire family to view. We also picked widely distributed channels that were well-known and recognized by viewers.”

Channels like the Cartoon Network didn’t make the cut, as the network serves two distinctly different audiences depending on the time of day: family-friendly animated fare during the day and more mature content on its nighttime schedule. Nickelodeon, meanwhile, often includes the “Roseanne” television program on its “Nick at Nite” feature.

For the most part, the big players in the cable industry eschew offering consumers the ability to pick and choose which programs they want to receive, often called a la carte.

“A la carte is the nuclear option,” said Josh Bernoff, a cable research analyst, told Variety. “It would destroy the economic foundation of the entire cable industry,” he continued.

Some in the religious community have expressed opposition to the a la carte option, fearing that channels with smaller audiences, like most faith-based channels, would be at risk of losing their place on the cable dial under that pricing scenario.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alacarte; cabletv; familytier; trashtv
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1 posted on 01/04/2006 12:38:44 PM PST by Constitutionalist Conservative
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative
The MSM is afraid that if we are ALLOWED to pick and choose, we will.........
2 posted on 01/04/2006 12:40:24 PM PST by Red Badger (And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him)
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative
“A la carte is the nuclear option,” said Josh Bernoff, a cable research analyst, told Variety. “It would destroy the economic foundation of the entire cable industry,”

And what a loss to mankind that would be.

3 posted on 01/04/2006 12:42:39 PM PST by meowmeow (Meow! Meow!)
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative

Competitive pressure will send the cable companies toward a la carte as some satellite companies (like US Direct) already have packages that give more control and choices to the consumers.


4 posted on 01/04/2006 12:43:39 PM PST by VRWCmember
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative
Notice how Ted Turner's company, hard as it tried, just couldn't stomach offering Trinity Broadcasting. Might get contaminated by some of that Christian stuff.

Also note how neither offered The History Channel. Can't have people learning history, after all, it would make the MSM and libs look bad...
5 posted on 01/04/2006 12:43:50 PM PST by JamesP81
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative
"A la carte is the nuclear option," said Josh Bernoff, a cable research analyst, told Variety. "It would destroy the economic foundation of the entire cable industry," he continued.

This is an open admission that they are currently forcing unwanted crap on us.

6 posted on 01/04/2006 12:44:31 PM PST by B Knotts
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I don't like the large hand of government. It should be up to a private bussiness to decide what services to offer, and how to offer them. If consumers don't like it, they are free to take their bussiness elsewhere.


7 posted on 01/04/2006 12:46:29 PM PST by SmoothTalker
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative
you know what is really starting to tick me off? commercials! I can fairly easily avoid shows that I know are offensive... but I have no way of controlling the practically pornographic commercials that play between the ones I watch that aren't offensive.
8 posted on 01/04/2006 12:46:39 PM PST by conservative physics
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To: B Knotts

I got your nuclear option right here...turn off your cable.


9 posted on 01/04/2006 12:47:30 PM PST by BurbankKarl
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To: meowmeow
And what a loss to mankind that would be.

I wouldn't miss it at all. The only thing TV has worth looking at is news programming, and that's all lib propaganda so you might as well get it from the internet. That's what I do.
10 posted on 01/04/2006 12:48:03 PM PST by JamesP81
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative

I really don't see the big issue. Have a basic tier of 12 channels, then charge a buck per channel with a twelve channel minimum for any channels over that. What's the big deal? Weaker, unpopular channels get weeded out, and advertisers get excellent targeted results.


11 posted on 01/04/2006 12:49:02 PM PST by Terabitten (Illegal immigration causes Representation without Taxation.)
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To: conservative physics

"but I have no way of controlling the practically pornographic commercials "




Pornographic? What? I haven't seen as much as a bare breast on any commercial. Your definition of what is pornography must be very tame.

I suggest cancelling your cable service and subscribing to NetFlix. They have lots of G-rated films.


12 posted on 01/04/2006 12:49:15 PM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative

Totally weak. So if I don't want MTV in my house I have to give up ESPN as well?

Who in the hell are they kidding?


13 posted on 01/04/2006 12:49:33 PM PST by Rutles4Ever
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative

NO NO NO. We don't want this. We want sports, news and weather. Give it up boys. You know you are going to have to do it so just do it. Stop playing games jerks.


14 posted on 01/04/2006 12:49:54 PM PST by kinghorse
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative

Oh and don't give us that feigned concern for parents, media people. We know you could care less.


15 posted on 01/04/2006 12:50:56 PM PST by kinghorse
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To: conservative physics
Me too! The ad for Brokeback Mountain is an excellent example. Played many times on TBS Christmas Day during the A Christmas Story marathon.

Finally removed TBS from our TV listing.
16 posted on 01/04/2006 12:51:03 PM PST by dhs12345
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To: SmoothTalker
If consumers don't like it, they are free to take their bussiness elsewhere.

That's kind of the problem - there essentially isn't an "elsewhere" to go.

Take my family: my wife and I like Discovery, History Channel, Animal Planet, ESPN and its various spinoffs, the country music channels, and a couple others. Where else can I go to see those channels?

17 posted on 01/04/2006 12:51:38 PM PST by Terabitten (Illegal immigration causes Representation without Taxation.)
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative

Full disclosure: I stopped cable in my house almost two years ago. Turned out the only channels we were watching were ESPN, Fox News, TLC, and maybe BBC America for Mystery! episodes...

But it wasn't worth paying $65 a month to watch TV.


18 posted on 01/04/2006 12:51:58 PM PST by Rutles4Ever
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative
“A la carte is the nuclear option,” said Josh Bernoff, a cable research analyst, told Variety. “It would destroy the economic foundation of the entire cable industry,” he continued.

So be it.

I'm sick and tired of being forced to pay for such gems as the public access channel, BET, MTV and a host of other worthless networks just to get the few channels that I really want. What the industry's really afraid of is losing control of the ability to dictate to me and countless other cable subscribers what channels we have to take if we want any cable at all.
19 posted on 01/04/2006 12:52:08 PM PST by reagan_fanatic (Darwinism is a belief in the meaninglessness of existence - R. Kirk)
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To: BurbankKarl

I canceled my satellite service about a year ago...it was no longer worth the price. Lots of money for very little decent programming.


20 posted on 01/04/2006 12:53:08 PM PST by B Knotts
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