Posted on 12/03/2005 6:43:34 AM PST by cloud8
What can I say? It sounds like you've decided that boycotting MTV is less important than watching Fox News. So be it.
It should also be noted that a polling group surveyed people to set their own price for various cable channels as in "how much would you pay per month to get ESPN?" "CNN?" "HBO?" "Discovery?", etc.
It was determined that if customers set their own price, the total for the cable programming they get now on standard tier would go UP by 20%. Of course, not everyone would order *all* the channels but it was still interesting to note that most people actually value the overall cable package more than they think they do. It's just that they don't want to pay for channels they believe they don't watch.
That would be boycotting the cable company, not the individual media conglomerate or channel. No matter the case of keeping cable or giving it up, THERE IS NO CONSUMER SOVEREIGNTY AND NO MARKET. I can not demonstrate that I don't want my money going towards certain programming while at the same time supporting certain programming.
You have as much soveriegnty as you need - you're free to accept the package or decline the package. Just because you don't like what's on the menu, that doesn't mean you don't have a choice. And it certainly doesn't mean that you should get to dictate how someone else provides a service to you by using the law to force them to provide it to you in the manner you desire - that's not a free market either.
Price is not elective below an absolute minimum number of subscribers. More popular companies are therefore inherently more able to control their pricing. Smaller subscriber base operations will inherently be more restricted in setting their minimum price. I believe that a couple of the educational channels might reach that threshold, and a couple others will not - and therefore perish (which is good). The current subsidy scheme allows that which should perish to survive.
Just mentioned this to hubby and he saw it. She sounds AMAZING!!! Her parents never told her she was disabled, and always treated her as normal.
Thanks for the ping.
Same here, my wife and I got rid of it because of all the noise and, well, crap. If we could pick out the history channel, sci-fi, fox-news, and maybe one or two others we might just do that..
Sure it is, as long as you own more than one channel. If I own the Naked Celebrities channel, I can charge pretty much anything I want, because lots of people will want it and will pay lots of money for it - for the sake of argument, anyway :)
And then, if I also own the Accordion Channel, devoted to 24/7 programming on all aspects of accordions and accordion repair, I can pretty much give that channel away for free to all two of its subscribers - Naked Celebrity subscribers will pick up the tab for the Accordion Channel, whether they like it or not, whether they watch it or not, or whether anyone watches it or not.
Look at what the options are available to consumers. The consolidation of the media and cable/satellite companies into two oligopalic markets has resulted into a situation where the basic packages and price structures are normalized accross the market. That means I'm FORCED to accept the packages everywhere or decline the packages everywhere.
"Just because you don't like what's on the menu, that doesn't mean you don't have a choice."
UGH, THERE IS NO MENU NOW, ONLY A BUFFET.
"And it certainly doesn't mean that you should get to dictate how someone else provides a service to you by using the law to force them to provide it to you in the manner you desire - that's not a free market either."
The government is fully in it's place to protect consumers by ensuring that competitive markets exists. If the technology exists to allow every consumer to pick what media they wish to consume, then they should be given that choice.
So don't eat there. Problem solved.
Of course I do - you, I'm not so sure about. Not all subsidies flow from the state - in this case, profitable channels subsidize unprofitable ones. Like most parents, I'm subsidizing my children's expenses. And so forth.
I have never had TIVO, but have had the Dish PVR for years, and love it. My only criticism is the "free" version" has only 35 hours of recording capability.
I am working on attaching a JVC DR-MH30s with five times the capacity hard drive and a combination DVD burner to deal with the limitation.
Watching all my favorite programs commercial-free sure is nice.
> the Accordion Channel...
The Accordion Channel...cool!!! Hey Marge, did you know there was an accordion channel? Call up the cable company and see if we can get it!
;-)
Some people here might recall when Congress got involved in satellite company legislation years ago. The problem that was presented to Congress was that people living in areas that could not receive a strong enough signal from the nearest local stations to get an acceptable picture via antenna wanted to be allowed to receive the alphabet network channels via satellite. Previously, Congress had forbidden this, ostensibly to protect advertisers on the nearest local stations.
By the time Congress got finished with it, the rollout of areas that would have access to the alphabet networks via satellite began with only a few metro areas, including Washington, D. C.
IOW, Congress made it so THEY could access the alphabet nets BEFORE rural residents who had been demanding such access. In fact, since the nearest metro areas that many of the rural folks live closest to are NOT the major market areas, THEY got access near the bottom of the list.
IOW, Congress turned the entire purpose of the thing upside down, and received the benefits of their legislation way before the people who really "needed" it.
I have little hope this cable issue will be resolved properly either.
You laugh, but just before we moved out of our last house, the guy who bought it wanted to have Dish come and install their stuff, but the easiest way was for them to actually come and do it a few days before we moved out. So we said fine, no big deal, and for a couple of days we had free Dish satellite. And maybe it's changed since then, but I'm sure I remember them having some sort of 24/7 polka channel. All the accordion you could ever want, and then some :)
> Look at what the options are available to consumers.
Consumers will have options eventually. The traditional cable/telecom company is a dino headed for extinction. Companies know they will soon need to compete to deliver content over one of the at least 6 entrances to people's houses--three pairs of wires plus three via air.
As for the other oligopoly, content sucks for the most part and it's not getting better. By the time delivery is figured out, consumers will have turned to DVDs they download from the Internet.
In the meantime, TBN is agitating against it. I guess they see the writing on the wall that most people would drop that bunch of charlatans like a hot potato.
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