Cable TV A La Carte?

Anonymous Coward writes "According to this BusinessWeek article you can now get your MTV a la carte. I having been waiting for years to buy my cable by the channel, and this article indicates that my cable company is now legally required to let me. I am going to call Time Warner tomorrow with my list just to see what they say. Anyone out there doing this now?"

Comments

No, you can't get MTV a la cart, read it again...

[burnsy]

It says you can get HBO without having to pay for a premium level of service. They can still require you to get basic service and even make you rent a digital box.

Price limits?

[Penguinoflight]

What kind of price limits are they put to? Same price as in a package of channels? Obviously, if they aren't held to any firm price limits, they'll just charge $20/channel, and nobody will buy it.

I do think this is a good law though, How many people on slashdot would want to get cable just for TechTV?

Re:Price limits?

[CerebusUS]

Our local cable company offers the ability to buy individual channels from the packages they offer.

However, unless you are buying less than 5 channels you'll spend more money than the package.

Since most people want at least MTV, TWC, CNN, DISC, CC and SCIFI it's kind of a moot point.

Re:Price limits?

[RobotRunAmok]

True SlashDot geeks are watching the Discovery network channels, National Geographic, and the History channel any chance they can get.

Thanks for reminding us, Dexter. Sometimes I forget what I am supposed to watch or do so that my membership in the True SlashDot Geek Club won't lapse or be revoked. I'd hate to have to turn in my decoder ring.

All my free-thinking and living-my-own-life crap sometimes plays havok with the whole /.-Hive-Mind, but I'm working on it, really I am. Still, It's real swell to know you're here and have the time to set me and all the other strays back on the path of True Geek Righteousness.

Thanks again, bro!

Fun ...

[vonkraken]

I am sure that the 'package' pricing will make consumer choice still include a few channels that would otherwise not be purchased. How many cable channels rely on being packaged with other groups of channels just to get a shot at having some eyeballs watching them?

Package deal - 39.99
Individual Channels - $3.00 -$5.00 per channel.

It could add up very quickly, and I think that most consumers couldn't be bothered to pick and choose channels while taking pricing into account IMO.

Cheers,

VonKraken

Wrong

[ajakk]

The headline and description are totally wrong. The rule says that a Cable company must allow you to buy HBO/Showtime/Cinimax/TMC without signing up for premium cable. So this means if you don't like watching MTV, Discovery Wings, or other non-Basic cable channels, but you watch HBO, you can drop Premium cable, but still keep HBO.

Long Time Overdue

[CatWrangler]

I actually would be willing to pay more than I am now, if they offered more options on channels and I could configure my own system.

It would be better to have 70 channels of things you want to watch, rather than have 125 channels which include 4 home shopping networks, oxygen, lifetime,5 gardening channels etc....

Letting the viewers decide what they want to pay for is quite a concept. What took em so long?

talk about getting screwed

[MrSkunk]

I know that cable companies try to screw you, but I didn't know they were so open about it. This is a quote from one of showtime's spokesmen.

"It's our hope that our affiliates would use whatever tactics are available to increase their premium penetration."

What we have in parts of Canada

[LordOfYourPants]

For places with digital cable, we have the following setup. I'm not speaking for all of Canada, but at least with this cable provider (Rogers).

1) Analog channels. Channels 2-~78 are analog. We can choose between 3 "tiers" which determine what type of filter is installed at the cable box itself. 2-28 is "basic" cable. 29-~42(?) is another tier, ~43-78 is another. They are grouped this way as to make filtering easier. Changing the programming is a PITA as someone has to physically drive down from the cable company and change things. Usually being wishy-washy as to what you want will net you a $50 charge each time someone has to drive over.

2) Digital channels. Channels 80-999 are digital. You can order most any of the "basic" ones for $2.50 / each / month. Bundling them in bigger sets gets you bigger discounts. ie: 5 channels for $10, 10 channels for $15, etc. You can mix and match as you please, and they are activated usually before your call to the cable company is finished.

It's been this way for a year and a quarter now.

You're not married are you?

[jocknerd]

My wife would divorce me if I were to cancel Lifetime.

Re:You're not married are you?

[grub]

My wife would divorce me if I were to cancel Lifetime.

I'm recently divorced and can honestly say the best part is never having to sit through another Trading Spaces marathon! :)

Re:You're not married are you?

[cdrudge]

I showed my wife an article about the behind the sceens of one of those episodes and how much damage/money it costs to repair the "renovation". I believe it was either the one where the lady cried on camera or the hay on the walls. She now hates the show even more then I do. :)

Her best friend recently had a neighbor do an episode. The weekend after they left they undid everything that they had done to their room.

Re:You're not married are you?

[ncc74656]

I put the parental block on HGTV, Lifetime and TLC after she started watching this crap and had me paint the whole fscking house.
I set the password to '1234'. She'll never figure it out...

Just hope that isn't the combination on her luggage...

Re:You're not married are you?

[mr_gerbik]

What you should have said was Only a drugged up lesbian designer who has no children would think Gluing hay on a wall was a good idea

No way.. paint chips & hay are a great afterschool snack! ;)

Re:You're not married are you?

[Anonymous Coward]

Taken from RealityWorldTV.com:

The second season of Trading Spaces has seen some pretty dramatic room makeovers, as well as homeowner reactions. None more memorable than that of Pam Herrick, who had to leave the room and cry, after the reveal of her new dark brown living room. She tells EntertainmentWeekly.com that she "felt violated." Meanwhile her husband says the "Trading Spaces crew is sloppy, unprofessional and unsafe when it comes to the makeover process. Our home was left a fire hazard and in violation of local building codes." Meanwhile, a couple weeks ago, TLC aired an episode in which designer Hilda Santo-Tomas glued straw/hay all over a couple's living room. In case you were wondering, it took 5 adults (including the neighbours who glued it on in the first place) 17 hours to get all the hay and glue off the walls, after the show had left. As the unstable bookshelf that Trading Spaces installed became a hazard for their young children, the couple removed it from the room. In addition, they paid $3000 for a new mantle, to replace the one that Hilda removed. So much for that $1000 budget.

Re:You're not married are you?

[cdrudge]

Here is the article article about the hay incedent. The lady crying while on the episode is here.

You can also do a search on Google searches for Tranding Spaces hay, Trading Spaces cry, or Pam Herrick to find out more about the show.

Things that they don't tell you on the show:
You sign a contract stating what room is to be changed, what can NOT be touched (They ignore this), what you would like (colors, themes, etc). Trading Spaces then assigns a designer (none of which have any formal design education) to do what ever they want, not what you want. Most of the work is done off camera by the crew. Sewing done on camera is just for show...they have a crew to do that. Same with carpentry. The furniture is made super cheap...particle board bookcases come to mind on one show. I just got to the point where I started laughing at the shows. Some had interesting decorations, but most were a joke. You get around $1000 to change the room, but nothing if you don't like it. You are responsibie for carting away trash (they will pay the disposal fee, but it's just a hassle). You also have to put up with that annoying Paige lady. That would be the ultimate deal breaker for me regardless of the rest.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Premium channels only

[Jobe_br]

I don't see anything that says that the Time Warners, Charter Communications, and Cox Cable networks out there have to charge any *less* for saying "I want HBO-East only!" v. what they charge for having 6 HBO channels (comedy, family, etc.) From what I can recall, adding a premium channel has always been $10-$15 extra a month - just now you get multiple premium channels for the price of one.

Am I missing something here? Seems to me that being able to select which regular channels you want (so you don't have to get QVC, for example) would be more useful.

Situation in other countires?

[joe52]

What are the cable deals like for Slashdot readers outside of the US?

I spent four months living in France this year and my cable provider had a point system. Each channel cost a certain number of points (ranging from about 2 for something boring up to 15-25 for a premium channel) and you paid for packages with varying amounts of points. Then you could pick the channels you wanted and not waste points on something you would never watch. It seemed like a better deal (perhaps not cheaper, but much more flexible) than what we have in the US. I don't even have cable here since I'm not a huge fan of television and cable TV packages cost more than I am willing to pay.

-Joe

Re:woohoo!

[grub]

Just what we need, a thread where all the Slashdotters post lists of their favorite TV channels. Don't you people go out?

I can't, my parents lock the basement door.

Not a great idea...

[dasmegabyte]

My dad's worked in cable engineering since its inception and has always said that ala carte pricing is not a good idea.

First off, it's more expensive. Consider: a fair price for a channel you really want is probably 2-5$ per month. I receive 85 channels for $23. Even eliminating the dozens I don't watch, there's more than 10 channels I do want to get, including all five major networks, comedy central, cartoon network and a gaggle of learning channels, BBCA and of course Food TV.

Second off, it's not really good for the cable co based on how the cable companies receive and send the channels themselves. Everything's handled by big blocks of splitters and amplifiers. Each handles a set of channels. Channels are pulled down from satelites in blocks as well...TWC in Albany has a set of five or so, one of which is dedicated to all the myriad HBOs, one to all the turner channels, etc. So it makes sense to sell TV in blocks...it's impossible to accurately tell how much a SINGLE channel costs you. In fact, after setup costs and maintenance costs and offsetting the possibility of customer service, just getting one channel may cost about $15 on a good margin, while getting fifty channels on the same line would only be pennies more.

Finally, it's not fair for marginal channels. You know all those channels you don't watch, like History or Speedvision or Golf TV or Univision? They're all somebody's favorite channel, believe it or not. There may be very few people who watch them, but they're getting equal billing due to being part of a package deal. Thus, they also have the ability to get hugely popular -- after all, you're more likely to catch something interesting on than if you had to order it specifically. Would TV Food be such a mainstay in our house were it not for having actually seen Good Eats, Iron Chef, David Rosengarden's Taste or Jamie Oliver? No. Hell, we wouldn't have ordered "ala carte" a channel that was ostensibly just reruns of Julia Childs.

Block pricing isn't really that expensive, anyway. I get 85 channels and broadband internet for less than the a quarter of the cost of my car's insurance and upkeep, and I sure get a lot more utility out of it.