Comments on: The Myth of ala Carte Cable? http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/ Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:14:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: seth campbell http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-558842 Thu, 23 Dec 2010 23:46:00 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-558842 Looks like a new tv company will be launching a la carte or pay per channel TV service to compete with cable. Its called Nuclius TV and the website is http://www.nucliusiptv.net

]]> By: Rolf Schewe http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116059 Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:52:57 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116059 Why should we be subsidizing channels we don’t watch? Most of our bill is paying to prop up channels that we don’t watch. Let all these channels earn their stay. It’s like corporate welfare for bad TV. Let the marketplace determine what channels should stay or go, not this subsidizing model.

I hardly watch TV, but when I do it is for live events like Yankees games. Most of the time my TV is off. My content intake is mainly from the web.

There is no bill I hate to pay more than cable TV.

I am for a la carte as an option to consumers. People like to throw up the all or nothing strawman. At least give us a choice.

]]> By: Bob Brown http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116058 Wed, 13 May 2009 23:22:27 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116058 I don’t have cable or even an antenna connected to my TV. You can download every tv show from pirate bay.

]]> By: Amanda http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116057 Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:46:38 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116057 You can just keep the cable package you have and program your television to skip certain channels. It’s a built-in feature on most models, not that hard to do. No need to go into the economics of it, when it can be done manually. :)

But aren’t you still paying for the channels you’ve skipped? You know it’s funny because when you think about it, it was the hippie generation that wanted pay tv because they realized that free means commercials. More were willing to pay for no commercials or less.

]]> By: Eric http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116056 Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:03:17 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116056 You can just keep the cable package you have and program your television to skip certain channels. It’s a built-in feature on most models, not that hard to do. No need to go into the economics of it, when it can be done manually. :)

]]> By: dina624 http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116055 Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:48:43 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116055 The average cable bill is something like 50 to 60 dollars a month, I’m guessing. I don’t see why they can’t let consumers buy say just the 25 (or less if they want…you’d be surprised at how little people want in TV…) channels they want for that price. I would love if I could get cable with NO MTV, NO CNN, only FOX and local channels and NO Disney channel, NO NICK, no LINK……and NO GAY LESBIAN channels…it seems EVERY package contains those channels….plus the thousand and one shopping networks out there…I would be willing to put up with 3 of them…maybe.

We just decided to wean ourselves off TV…next year its out and we are just getting netflix for any movies we might want to watch.

We can watch fox and EWTN on the internet. My husband helps friends figure out how to hook their internet up their TV’s so they can watch ‘tv style’, shows from the internet, by-passing Cable.

dina

]]> By: JohnK http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116054 Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:39:55 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116054 I’m not as concerned about ala carte vs. pre-packaged as I am for the requirement to use cable boxes (or cable cards). Technologically, a cable company could simply put out digital signals that any digitial-cable TV could play as-is, but the cable companies seem insistant on having us use of their decoder-boxes that they will “conveniently” rent to us, with multiple boxes required for multiple TV sets. I would like to see unscramlbed digital channels provided much as in the same manner as analog channels are provided now. I think the cable companies want the box-requirement so that they can charge more.

]]> By: Paul Galvanek http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116053 Wed, 09 May 2007 15:54:46 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116053 One problem with much of the discussion so far. While the impact on cost from ala carte is important it is not the only reason to support ala carte – free speech rights are also a concern here that rarely gets discussed. Look people, as long as anyone is being forced to pay for content they end up feeling a need to block the push for the government to regulate content is going to keep gaining momentum. The idea that anyone could be forced to provide subsidy for material they find morally, philosophically or politically objectionable is at the root f the problem. Ala carte pricing, which does NOT exclude bundling as a option, will make all arguments in favor of regulation obsolete. If you don’t want something, don’t pay for it, if you paid for it’s a matter between yourself and the company you contracted with for the content. The current argument which is essentially if you don’t t like don’t watch it, but we’re still going to make you pay for it and subsidize its production should be an affront to anyone who prizes freedom. I personally would gladly pay a few extra bucks a month if it meant no money was going to some of the content providers currently on my system.

]]> By: A La Carte Cable - Stock Market Beat - Our beat: The stock market. Our job: Beat it. http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116052 Tue, 08 May 2007 03:52:03 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116052 [...] and pay for specific channels they want, and no “basic” tier) has been a big topic of discussion from time to time. Today it gained new attention due to comments by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin (via [...]

]]> By: Cat http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116051 Sun, 14 May 2006 07:19:24 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116051 What I think the cable companies should do is offer a cable package, BUT let the consumer choose the channels. Perhaps a basic cable package of 20 channels at $19.99 but let us pick what channels.

I don’t mind paying for a package, but what I hate is that I’ll get Court TV and HGTV (The two channels I love) but then get a crap load of sports channels and tons of news channels that show all the same junk.

This way, the cable companies still get their package price income, yet the consumer can pick and choose. Wouldn’t this be a good compromise?

]]> By: Katie http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116050 Wed, 12 Apr 2006 16:20:23 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116050 I don’t have cable and I don’t have dish, the only channels I have are the ones I can get with an antenna. I am personally waiting for ala carte cable because the main reason I don’t have cable or dish now is that I don’t want the 300 channels with nothing on for $100/month (I can do without 47 channels of CNN/CSpan. etc, and 50 ESPN channels I don’t watch them). For the channels I would watch I can’t justify the expense. I don’t watch that much TV and I don’t want to take 20 minutes to scan through the channels to find what I want to watch. I want the channels I get with my antenna and about 10 other channels. Until then I will stick with the free channels and if the government passes the regulation so that I can no longer get any TV with an antenna then I guess I will have to just stick with watching DVDs.

]]> By: Raphy http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116049 Tue, 21 Mar 2006 21:29:13 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116049 We don’t need an a la carte cable system. As a society we’re already moving in this direction — and iPods are certainly speeding up this process. People are already paying $2 per episode for “Lost.” But the difference is that people are paying a la carte per show, not per channels. The reality is that few people would save substantive money.
And what would we give up? How often do you hear about a show on a channel you rarely watch and start to watch it? Just a year ago I got hooked on The Daily Show. Before that I almost never watched Comedy Central, and if it was on an a la carte strutcture would not have paid for it.

]]> By: Dennis Evans http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116048 Mon, 20 Mar 2006 23:03:01 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116048 One problem is there are 66 million subs but only half have convertors and many of them have 3 TV sets or more.
The Industry will need to buy 60-120 [nodody knows the exact number] million more convertors to give every set alacarte digital for every channel…the new cheapo digitals are $50 each if the customer can install them. That’s 3-6 Billion for no increase in Revenue. Add another $10 per sub CAPEX to convert all the analog videos [local, public access, garbage channels, etc] to digital…3.5-6.5 Billion.

Then the problem of CableCards and the mandate to remove convertors – downloadable security.

]]> By: Victor Blake http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116047 Mon, 20 Mar 2006 14:38:34 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116047 The problem isn’t the cable companies (yes I do work for one). And it’s isn’t the line up. I think one thing that would satisfy a lot of consumer’s needs would be to have customizeable directory services (where the channels are entries in the directory). Directory services that provided the kind of capability we all have come to know and love one our “Links” or “Favorite” menus in our browsers. The ability to customize, add icons (ala Sling Box client), to incorporate parental-controls, aliases, and basically create taxonomies at will. We all like having lots of choices. It just gets tedious to find that one movie you know is on at 9:30pm when you have 600 to 900 channels (including the VoD channels).

There are clearly “more” channels on the Internet than on any cable station, but the ability to organize them in a browser, and the freedom from a remote — makes it easier online.

I’m waiting for a “guide” that I can customize from a browser interface and push to my set-top box or television.

]]> By: mull http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116046 Sun, 19 Mar 2006 02:15:28 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116046 The people in the world of hurt right now are the content providers. Content used to be supported by advertising, but guess what, with 450 channels, kind of hard to target your message to such a fractured marketplace. Throw in VCR’s, DVR’s and the like where no one watches your commercials, guess what? Content goes down the tubes because nothing is paying for it. You think they produce reality shows by the dozens because the public actually wants to watch it? Its really really cheap to produce those types of programs.

Until somehow good content can find a way to make money, it will continue to be crap. Forget a la carte, wait until they just start charging for individual programs. I do not think that the costs to the consumer will go down, even though everyone seems to want to get something for free, but good quality programming costs money. Good writers cost money, good directors costs money.

One other comment on this topic, and that is I doubt that most of the people that read this blog or post on this blog is in the MSO’s, RBOC’s or content owners target marketplace anyway. Most of us typically don’t watch a whole lot of TV anyway, and the truth is, they really don’t care about that type of person. Their target is the person that would be willing to spend $100-200 a month on their programming.

]]> By: John Thacker http://gigaom.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116045 Sat, 18 Mar 2006 16:53:11 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/03/17/the-myth-of-ala-carte-cable/#comment-116045 It’s not particularly obvious offhand why a la carte pricing would reduce prices for the average consumer. It could go either way.

People with unusual tastes could certainly have their prices raised or lowered. Disney gets a HUGE price for ESPN and its channels; people who don’t like sports could probably save a lot.

It’s not even clear whether a la carte pricing would help the CableCos or the content providers more. The content providers are responsible for a lot of the bundling as it is now, or at least big fans of it– “take our less popular channels if you want the more popular ones.”

Competition will make a lot of these things clearer. Verizon’s FiOSTV, for example, is very interesting.

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