Free Republic

Portland Press Herald November 1, 2019 Cable companies want judge to pause new Maine law requiring à la carte channel choices BY EDWARD D. MURPHY STAFF WRITER A Maine federal judge is deciding whether to put a temporary hold on a first-in-the-nation law that requires cable companies to offer channels on an à la carte basis, a case that pits consumer choice against corporate control. Federal District Court Judge Nancy Torreson did not indicate when she might rule on the request for a temporary restraining order sought by the Comcast cable company and nine cable broadcasters, including Disney, Fox Cable...

Love grousing about cable TV? Then I’ve got a list for you. It comes from industry analyst SNL Kagan, and I came across it via a research note Barclays Capital’s Anthony DiClemente sent out last week. DiClemente was arguing that the bundled approach to cable TV–whereby subscribers get dozens or even hundreds of channels for one big fee, no matter how many networks they actually watch–wasn’t going anywhere for quite some time. If ever

Let's face it folks, we have the liberal media on the ropes. Drive by newspapers are dying. liberal broadcasts are setting record lows. Liberal cable outlets are always claiming 2nd, 3rd, etc best to Fox. So what's the next step?

Time Warner Cable Tests Data-Usage Rate StructureThursday, January 17, 2008 NEW YORK — Time Warner Cable will experiment with a new pricing structure for high-speed Internet access later this year, charging customers based on how much data they download, a company spokesman said Wednesday. The company, the second-largest cable provider in the United States, will start a trial in Beaumont, Texas, in which it will sell new Internet customers tiered levels of service based on how much data they download per month, rather than the usual fixed-price packages with unlimited downloads. Company spokesman Alex Dudley said the trial was aimed...

An antitrust lawsuit filed Thursday accuses leading programming, cable and satellite TV firms of colluding to only offer prepackaged tiers of bundled programs and refusing to sell programming a la carte. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California’s Western Division, seeks damages and an end to the bundling practices. The plaintiffs are named individual subscribers of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, EchoStar and DirecTV, seeking to establish a class consisting of “expanded-basic” customers of those companies and Charter and Cablevision Systems over the past four years. In the complaint, filed by Maxwell M. Blecher...

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday plans to begin considering banning programmers from "tying" — making cable systems take less-popular or new channels to get must-haves, such as ESPN DIS or CBS CBS. Programmers have used the practice to launch scores of channels. That's why you see all those spinoffs of Walt Disney's ESPN on basic and digital cable. Operators didn't necessarily want them — they just couldn't see a cheaper way to get the flagship channel. Each extra channel adds a fee to customers' bills. "The problem for consumers is that they have to pay higher rates for a...

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has written FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and the other commissioners registering their opposition to a la carte cable pricing. It was responding to reports that a violence report the commission is preparing to give to Congress suggests TV violence justifies imposing per-channel pricing as a way to give viewers more control over the programming in their homes. Saying many of its constituents live in communities affected by violence, NAACP Director Hilary Shelton said the FCC needed to review the "negative impact of dramatically reducing the diversity of cable and satellite programs...

As parents become increasingly concerned about what their children might see on television, some in Washington are proposing a “cure” that would be worse than the disease. Under the banner of conservatism, some proponents of a per-channel (or “a la carte”) pricing scheme claim that doing away with cable’s current bundling model will clean up cable. Ironically, such a mandate would greatly damage educational, family-oriented and religious programming. Currently, cable and satellite operators have enough channels and channel surfers to subsidize high-quality, wholesome content that doesn’t draw enough advertising or subscription revenue on its own to survive. While some a...

WASHINGTON — American consumers could see their cable or satellite television bill fall by as much as 13 percent if they could pay for only the channels they want, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said Thursday, contradicting its earlier study. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, consumer groups and some lawmakers have pushed channel choice, often referred to as "a la carte service" instead of bundles, as a way for consumers to block programming they do not want their children to see. Martin has said there were many flaws in the FCC's 2004 study that found a la carte would cost consumers...

WASHINGTON - Two U.S. senators Thursday urged the cable and satellite television industry to address the glaring absence of popular sports channels from new packages of family-oriented programming they plan to offer.But so far, the three biggest cable companies and both satellite television providers have unveiled packages without popular sports channels, like Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN. They do include broadcast channels that carry some sports. "You're going to have to come up with a family tier plus sports," said Sen. George Allen, a Virginia Republican and former football player in college. "The marketplace is going to want to have that."

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,...

CHICAGO, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A new regulation advocated by the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission may change the way cable network providers price services -- leading some to offer programming on an a la carte basis and enabling consumers to choose exactly the kind of programming they want delivered, experts tell United Press International's Networking. The policy proposal, for so-called a la carte programming, is designed by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, an appointee of President Bush, to drive down the pricing of cable packages and improve programming content. By Gene Koprowski

WASHINGTON -- Trying to preserve their electronic pulpits, the nation's religious broadcasters find themselves in the unusual position of fighting an effort by anti-indecency groups to thwart channels offering racy programming. The issue involves a debate over whether cable companies should continue offering subscribers mainstream and niche channels in bundles, or let them buy what they want on an "a la carte" basis.

Excerpt - Federal regulators are on the verge of suggesting that cable companies could best serve consumers by letting them subscribe to individual channels instead of offering only prepackaged bundles. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is expected to announce today at a Senate forum on indecency that the FCC will soon reissue its review of cable industry "à la carte" pricing with a wholly different conclusion. While the original report concluded that consumers would pay more for individual channels, the new one concludes they could pay less. "This report will conclude that à la carte could be in the...

McCain Proposes a La Carte Cable ExperimentYahoo directory of cable television stations. WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee thinks it's time to begin a government-mandated experiment that could end the cable industry's practice of charging people for a group of channels whether they want them or not. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a longtime critic of rising cable rates, said Thursday that he thinks the Federal Communications Commission should begin a pilot program that would determine whether offering cable channels a la carte would benefit consumers. McCain expressed support for the experiment to reporters, giving support...