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Conservative groups push à la carte cable menus
AP via Boston.com ^ | December 3, 2005 | By Jennifer C. Kerr

Posted on 12/03/2005 6:43:34 AM PST by cloud8

At least 2 companies break rank, express support for options

WASHINGTON -- Conservative groups love the idea of letting television viewers pay for only the channels they want on cable and are happy it's back on the table in Washington, where lawmakers and regulators are fed up with raunchy television.

While the cable industry generally loathes the notion of an à la carte pricing system, at least one cable company and a potentially big cable competitor have embraced it.

À la carte would allow cable subscribers to pick and pay for individual channels rather than being forced to buy packages. A parent, for example, could pick Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network -- and not have to take MTV or other channels they may find objectionable as part of a bundled package.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 109th; bundlevsalacarte; cabletv; conservatives; trashtv
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To: bahblahbah
Okay, so what you meant is that a boycott is not as easy as you'd like it to be, not that you can't do it.

What can I say? It sounds like you've decided that boycotting MTV is less important than watching Fox News. So be it.

121 posted on 12/03/2005 9:19:54 AM PST by Senator Bedfellow (Sneering condescension.)
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To: All

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.


122 posted on 12/03/2005 9:28:51 AM PST by Tall_Texan (HOUSTON ASTROS - NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS 2005)
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To: Senator Bedfellow

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.


123 posted on 12/03/2005 9:32:43 AM PST by bahblahbah
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To: bahblahbah

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.


124 posted on 12/03/2005 9:39:27 AM PST by Senator Bedfellow (Sneering condescension.)
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To: Senator Bedfellow
Sovereignty. More coffee, please...
125 posted on 12/03/2005 9:40:30 AM PST by Senator Bedfellow (Sneering condescension.)
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To: Senator Bedfellow

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.


126 posted on 12/03/2005 9:47:20 AM PST by SolutionsOnly
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To: Hildy
do youselves a favor and find out when the next showing of the "THE WOMAN WITH HALF A BODY" is being shown on The Learning Channel again.

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.

127 posted on 12/03/2005 9:49:25 AM PST by b9
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To: Tax-chick

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..


128 posted on 12/03/2005 9:49:49 AM PST by N3WBI3 (If SCO wants to go fishing they should buy a permit and find a lake like the rest of us..)
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To: SolutionsOnly
Price is not elective below an absolute minimum number of subscribers.

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.

129 posted on 12/03/2005 9:57:04 AM PST by Senator Bedfellow (Sneering condescension.)
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To: Senator Bedfellow
"You have as much soveriegnty as you need - you're free to accept the package or decline the package."

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.

130 posted on 12/03/2005 10:18:58 AM PST by bahblahbah
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To: Senator Bedfellow
Do you even know what subsidizing means? What you just described was a free market at work then called it subsidizing. That's like saying McDonalds subsidizes its salads with big macs. In a free market, a company has to deal with the laws of supply and demand for the products it offers. No matter how hard you look, you will not find a free market here in this duel oligopolistic system.
131 posted on 12/03/2005 10:33:25 AM PST by bahblahbah
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To: bahblahbah
UGH, THERE IS NO MENU NOW, ONLY A BUFFET.

So don't eat there. Problem solved.

132 posted on 12/03/2005 10:34:17 AM PST by Senator Bedfellow (Sneering condescension.)
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To: bahblahbah
Do you even know what subsidizing means? What you just described was a free market at work then called it subsidizing.

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.

133 posted on 12/03/2005 10:36:24 AM PST by Senator Bedfellow (Sneering condescension.)
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To: gondramB
everybody should have Tivo. Ever how much time you spend watching TV in a week whether it's 2 hours a week or 40 hours a week you might as well have all your favorite programming available right then.

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.

134 posted on 12/03/2005 11:13:18 AM PST by Publius6961 (The IQ of California voters is about 420........... .............cumulatively)
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To: Senator Bedfellow

> 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!

;-)


135 posted on 12/03/2005 11:22:09 AM PST by cloud8
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To: cloud8

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.


136 posted on 12/03/2005 11:30:43 AM PST by savedbygrace (SECURE THE BORDERS FIRST (I'M YELLING ON PURPOSE))
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To: cloud8

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 :)


137 posted on 12/03/2005 11:31:35 AM PST by Senator Bedfellow (Sneering condescension.)
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To: Tax-chick
Fox, History, Weather, UPN....uh, I'm thinking. Oh, the cable company pays me for their infomercial channels. That'll be all I want today.
138 posted on 12/03/2005 11:33:51 AM PST by gathersnomoss
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To: bahblahbah

> 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.


139 posted on 12/03/2005 11:36:21 AM PST by cloud8
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To: cloud8

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.


140 posted on 12/03/2005 11:36:38 AM PST by kms61
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