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FCC Report Supports a la Carte TV Pricing
An anonymous reader writes "The FCC may soon allow cable/sat companies to sell individually customized TV channel packages. From the article: ' FCC chairman Kevin Martin spoke to a forum, sponsored by the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee in Washington, which has been examining indecency on radio and television. Martin told the forum that the FCC will soon release a report that concludes that offering TV programming a la carte is economically feasible and in the best interest of consumers.'"
What does indecency have to do with this? Am I going to be able to get just the indecent channels now?
This is an absolutely fantastic idea. The whole "to get the channels you want, you have to take these other ones too" concept is ludicrous. Just imagine if other industries did that...
What if every time you bought a ticket to an NBA game, you were forced to buy one for a WNBA game too? Not fair? Don't like it? Tough.
What if every time you bought an X-Box 360 or Nintendo DS, you were forced to buy an N-Gage, Gizmondo, or Virtual Boy too? Not fair? Don't like it? Tough.
What if every time you went to see a popular movie, say Revenge of the Sith or Harry Potter, you were forced to buy a ticket to something like Gigli or Ashlee Simpson's Undiscovered or the latest Uwe Boll masterpiece? Not fair? Don't like it? Tough.
Consumers generally appreciate having a choice, and hate the feeling of forced decisions, especially ones that don't seem particularly logical ("What? You like to watch CNN and The Sopranos? Well you're sure to love the Competitive Quilting Channel too!")
It's sad that this is being rolled out in the name of "decency", but it's still a good idea.
Andrew Lenahan http://www.starblind.com/
With the digital set top boxes, it'd be a piece of cake.
I don't see it being offered with the possibility to save you money on your cable bill, though. It requires individualized effort (unless they tie a web interface to the head end, and allow you to select your channels online, which would be cool). Even then, there would have to be added cost to do it. But I'd love to get rid of shopping channels, crazy religious channels, and other channels that I will never watch (spanish, BET, etc).
This is such a good idea. Which means it will never happen.
Well, it's not necessarily a good idea, for two reasons.
a) It will mean higher prices.
b) It will mean fewer choices.
Pretty much exactly the opposite of why some people seem to want it. Let me explain.
Right now, you pay what, $30 for 100 channels or whatever your cable company charges for the package you have. Switch to a-la-carte and do you really think any channel is going to allow themselves to be priced for under a buck a month? It's one thing to be included as part of a package, but if you break it down and say "this channel is worth 20 cents, this channel is worth $2", no channel is going to accept being priced on that low end. And the whole point of a-la-carte pricing is to take the power out of the cable company's hands, so it will be the channels themselves that do the pricing.
A lot of channels right now are subsidized by other channels that whatever media conglomerate that owns them requires the cable company to include as part of a package of other, more popular channels. This is how channels like Sundance Channel and BBC America exist. It both helps new channels mature and grow a customer base and it brings prestige and cross-marketing opportunities to the channels' owner. These channels will be gone under a-la-carte pricing, because they will be forced to pay their own way from day one, and they will not be able to command the prices required for them to operate profitably.
What you're going to end up with is a bunch of lowest common denominator, mainstream channels that are as driven by the cable equivalent of "ratings" as the major TV networks are now (in cable's case, those "ratings" would be represented by subscriptions). Is that really a good thing? Not to me, it isn't.
Now, you can argue that it's the free market, blah blah blah, and that's true, but I'd like to point out that it's the free market that made Titanic the #1 movie of all time and Britney Spears the #1 selling music artist of the past few years. Do you really want to be relying on your fellow customers to support the channels you want well enough to keep them afloat on their own?
Now, I'm not saying the current system is perfect; it isn't. It needs major changes, and it is a government-sanctioned monopoly right now from the bottom on up. But one of the good things about the current system, which will be thrown out the window with a-la-carte pricing, is a sort of immunity to mainstream whims that the major networks have to contend with. It's why cable channels can be a little edgier, why they can take more chances in finding and building an audience. You should really be asking yourself why it is that the FCC is recommending this in the name of promoting decency on television - it's not about price. It's about putting out of business channels that do anything outside the mainstream.
I've heard in this thread lots of complaints that (little viewed) channels like, Discovery, History and PBS would be dropped using this approach. Wrong! These channels have huge followings as they get referred to, time and again in diverse public forums other than Slashdot. Think about it, both SciFi and Food channel were once part of the basic Direct TV satellite package years ago until the little phone cord attached to the back of every box tattled to the marketing guru's that they were getting lots of viewer time, so they got bumped up into premium packages.
Please mod me 1 or troll. It's where the truth is these days, even on Slashdot. Beware the power of moderators everywh
No, it's a strange country you live in! Most of the world doesn't think seeing naked people scars the young mind. Or that murder is a-ok to show to children.
But on the other hand, it's only a matter of time before americans will ban both childbirth and nursing, as they expose children to breasts and female genitalia.