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Comments on news posted 2012-06-26 10:38:55: The Department of Justice recently launched an investigation into whether cable operators are engaged in anti-competitive behavior against over-the-top Internet video rivals. ..

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decifal7
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN

decifal7

Member

actualy

Much like the teleco's for smart phones.. if they kill the fun of the device/activity by over pricing it, I will drop it

syslock
Premium Member
join:2007-02-03
La La Land

syslock to Kilroy

Premium Member

to Kilroy

Re: Sports - the only reason for cable

LMAO reading this thread.
Grew up in the burbs of Cleveland thru the Kosar years.
Browns make a good training camp for the other teams.
They are still holding on and Hoping.

Why don't they just let those stations figure it out or go out of business?
Do we need a bailout for TV stations now too? NO!

I'm sick of all the stations that have infomercials on them instead
of programming. People will go on-line and watch content because
all they see is garbage on all those channels.

Oh I forgot those channels are offering me real value for my money.
BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Wakefield, MA

BosstonesOwn to David

Member

to David

Re: Wow...

I pay 900 for 2 new cars... Not like im driving new infinitis any more but geezzzz ain't no way im paying more then 150 for cable or 450 for a car.

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
Asus RT-AX89

aaronwt to jvanbrecht

Premium Member

to jvanbrecht
said by jvanbrecht:

What kind of car are you driving.. Just south of a car payment for me would have me practically owning a station after my 5 year loan is up.. okay so maybe not quite owning.. but I do not know too many cars that are in the $150 to $250 range, which I am guessing is the avg cable bill in most houses..

My car payment is close to $800....

In the last thirty years I've never had a car payment higher than $250. And I don't see that trend ending anytime soon for me. I would rather spend the money on something I enjoy instead of on a car. Just like I wish a la carte would arrive so I could dump ESPN.

jslik
That just happened
Premium Member
join:2006-03-17

jslik

Premium Member

New Pricing Scheme

Current average cable bill ~ $85

New ala carte pricing* -
ESPN - $10
News Channels (CNN, FOX, MSNBC) - $5/each
History - $5
MTV - $5
FX - $5
etc.

*must select no less than 12 channels, plus $25 "cable availability fee"

morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000

morbo

Member

Unbelievable

"In an a la carte world, consumer satisfaction would be destroyed."

A la carte is the only thing I want from cable.
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

1 edit

elefante72 to baineschile

Member

to baineschile

Re: I absolute agree with Karl about the last

Well keep in mind there are like 5 companies that control all of cable TV, so it's not like the mom and pops are trying to break into cable. Almost every mom and pop got run off simply because they got squeezed off BY consolidation.

It could take nothing for these guys to move TV shows around or sprinkle them selectively among their stations to get a certain viewership.

For instance if I didn't sub to cable I can get all of the old Mad Men on netflix and this season on whatever VOD for $20. I could always wait a year for when it is free...

So lets go over your list:

Mad Men, Breaking Bad (Cablevision-> Rainbow -> Public Company) -> AMC
Jersey Shore -> MTV, owned by Viacom
Queer Eye -> Bravo, FLN (Bravo was AMC, FLN is Scripps Network) Bravo is owned by COMCAST

OK:

AMC: (AMCX)
Scripps: (SNI)
MTV: Viacom (VCX)
Bravo: NBCU -> Comcast (CMCSA)

So you can see that these are not little old poor mom and shops, these are publicly owned Fortune 1000 companies whose sole responsibility it to take as much money from you as possible.

Take Univision -> it was public until it was purchased by big VC capital: In March 2007, Univision Communications, Inc. was sold to Broadcasting Media Partners, Inc. which includes Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC, Providence Equity Partners Inc., TPG Capital, L.P., Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P., and Saban Capital Group Inc.

Take your lowly ESPN owned by a small companies: Hearst, and Disney

Lets take some women's channels:

Hallmark (Hallmark International) -> Crown (CRWN)
Lifetime - Hearst/Disney
Lifetime Medical Channel ->Viacom
Oxygen Networks -> NBCU -> Comcast
WeTv -> Lifetime channel -> Hearst/Disney
Style Network -> NBCU -> Comcast

AA:

BET -> Viacom (VCX)

WBLK - The minority radio station in my town is owned by TownSquare Media which owns over 150 channels based out of Greenwich, CT. I don't know if you have been to Greenwich but my brown skin qualifies as the help.

I don't see many minorities or poor souls scrapping by in this list, DO YOU?????

buzz_4_20
join:2003-09-20
Dover, NH
(Software) Sophos UTM Home Edition
Ruckus R310

buzz_4_20

Member

Of couse we'd lose jobs with zero benefit :-\

I bet the savings on cable bills will be spent elsewhere.

Maybe even locally, benefiting and supporting the local business!

We can't have that now.

This is a hard sell, but Piracy even benefits the economy.

1. Pirates will pay a premium for faster internet
2. Pirates spend more on hard drives

But, that money isn't going to the RIAA/MPAA so it must be LOST.
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Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Joe12345678 to No to ESPN

Member

to No to ESPN

Re: Sports Mafia Would Suffer

ok then why not have a SPORTS ONLY base pack with out all the other NON sports channels?

all the non sports channels may only add to say $10-$20 but with that you can buy HBO.
Joe12345678

Joe12345678 to jslik

Member

to jslik

Re: New Pricing Scheme

think bigger theme packs.

$10-$15 line fee + locals (clean QAM) + all the free shopping and PSA channels.

ESPN pack
ESPN
ESPN 2
ESPN 3
ESPN U
ESPN C
ESPN news

Sport pack 1
In market RSN's + bigten (in market) + pac12 (in market)

Sport pack 2
NFL network and NFL network red zone (free with NFL ST), NBA TV (free with NBA LP),NHL network (free with NFL CI), MLB network and MLB network stike zone (Free with MLB EI)

Sports pack 3
NBCSN, golf channel, CBS Sports Network, speed, Fuel TV, Universal Sports, TVG, HRTV.

Sports pack 4
Big Ten Network (out of market), pak12 (out of market), Fox College Sports, CBS Sports Network.

Sports pack 5
Fox Soccer, Fox Soccer Plus, GOL TV.

Spots pack X

TNT, tru tv,TBS, MSNBC, CNBC (Sports only)

sports pack mega 1-4 as part a deal
sports pack mega with ESPN 1-4 and X as part of a deal.

that is just some ideas on the sports side.
ptb42
join:2002-09-30
USA

ptb42 to desarollo

Member

to desarollo

Re: Wow...

said by desarollo:

All I hear is bitching about the debt, but no one bitched when the majority of the debt was run up under Republicans.

Go back and look at the history of the federal budget deficit in the past 30 years. Compare how it changed from year to year (increased or decreased) to which party controlled the House of Representatives.

Once you have done that, come back and try to repeat what I quoted above with a straight face. If you can, you are a better liar than most.

I'll give you a hint: with only a few exceptions, the annual deficit declined when one party controlled the House, and increased (sometimes spectacularly) when the other party controlled the House.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt to KrK

Premium Member

to KrK

Re: But What About the Jobs Killed by Anti-competitive Behavior?

said by KrK:

That's not an investigation. It's a propaganda piece that is, as you say, speculation.

On both sides, but the cable industry has an advantage, they KNOW exactly how many people work at each channel and each production company, hey also know which channels and shows aren't pulling their own weight/ would not be self sustaining in a true ala carte sceniro, but still add value to a package of similar shows (i.e. very few would buy a channel just for Jeopardy but more might buy a package containing multiple games shows, some favorites, some just OK/something to watch)

Karl, on the otherhand, only has the belief That somehow an equal number of jobs would be generorated if the current cable and content industry was broken up and that an equal number of hours of entertain of equal or better quality would be cheaper.

I don't think you'll ever get more for less.
tshirt

tshirt

Premium Member

And I don't really care if it's minorities, women, or old white guys jobs.
If less money goes in, less jobs come out.
Expand your moderator at work

FLATLINE
join:2007-02-27
Buffalo, NY

FLATLINE to Terabit

Member

to Terabit

Re: Wow...

This has nothing to do with politics. Quite frankly there are enough people in these so called Minorities to pay for said channels. If those channels fail its simply because they couldnt sustain themselves.

On the other end whats to stop them from just creating channels for the sake of creating them and forcing us to pay? Oh wait! Thats exactly what they have been doing.
john262
join:2003-09-26
Elko, NV

john262 to pnh102

Member

to pnh102
Amen brother.

And I don't want to pay extra for my cable TV bill either in order to support niche channels for minorities. If they want those channels let them pay for it.
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Chubbysumo
join:2009-12-01
Duluth, MN
Ubee E31U2V1
(Software) pfSense
Netgear WNR3500L

Chubbysumo

Member

it would kill 1 million worthless jobs

it would simply mean that the good channels would stop subsidizing the crappy channels, and so, if the crappy channels didnt have good content, they would not be subscribed to, and thus, would either go away or adapt. I can't wait for this to happen, and this article is very one sided. It ignores the fact that most of the channels in the "bundle" i pay for I dont watch, and they get that pay regardless. Its a ripoff TV model, where one does not have to work, or produce good content to survive, and it simply raises customers bills.
john262
join:2003-09-26
Elko, NV

john262 to desarollo

Member

to desarollo

Re: Wow...

The economic crisis of 2008 had nothing to do with Bush. Actually, any president has very little influence over the economy. The Federal Reserve Chairman has more power in that area than the president does.
john262

john262 to Nightfall

Member

to Nightfall

Re: Depends on the channel

Fox Reality went off the air a long time ago. It's NatGeo Wild now.

FLATLINE
join:2007-02-27
Buffalo, NY

FLATLINE to john262

Member

to john262

Re: Wow...

Good point but I dont think hes talking about the economy but more the spending habits of our government. Bush was in large part responsible for the extreme accumulation of debt after taking office with a government holding very little debt. War is expensive. Do you have idea what those bombs and missiles cost they spread all over Afphganistan and Iraq?
XJakeX
join:2005-03-05
Coventry, RI

XJakeX

Member

Not all cable's fault

I think the anger here against the cable, satellite and Telcos is misplaced. It's not their fault we don't have a la carte. The TV networks, or rather their 5 corporate parents, control that. They force all the rebroadcasters to buy channels in bundles, so it would be very difficult financially to offer a la carte pricing.

The other major gripe people have against TV is the number of commercial minutes per hour. This is also controlled by the TV networks.

If commercial minutes per hour of programming were reduced to 10, and a la carte pricing were available, my local cable company might be able to coax me back as a customer.
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michieru
Premium Member
join:2009-07-25
Denver, CO

michieru to pnh102

Premium Member

to pnh102

Re: Wow...

You should considering that right now Comcast pays for the groceries for these families. If they were to lose the jobs that you don't care about then it will come out of welfare.

This matter isn't as simple as it seems but yes we should get what "we" the consumer want. Of course we cannot ignore that because this is not a necessity and I am sure you will agree cable isn't. Then we shouldn't have to regulate the TV industry because that's the conservative thing to do.

I say let it be and have consumers speak with their wallets and let the blood bath continue. Eventually something will give way and when it does I can see the TV industry losing because at one point or another, bare necessities is more important than cable TV.

Recession? If you can afford a $250 cable bill... cry me a river.

Noah Vail
Oh God please no.
Premium Member
join:2004-12-10
SouthAmerica

Noah Vail to tshirt

Premium Member

to tshirt

Re: But What About the Jobs Killed by Anti-competitive Behavior?

said by tshirt:

Karl do you have a link to a precise scientific study showing exactly how many Jobs are Killed by Anti-competitive Behavior?

It's on file, right next to the unbiased anti-AlaCarte study.
Noah Vail

Noah Vail

Premium Member

Two things I've never paid for - TV & Sex

Makes me realize that marriage is a little bit like the internet.
I get unlimited with just one commitment.

slow_move
@optonline.net

slow_move

Anon

Select

The argument that channels that people don’t want will go away (and that is bad) is simply anti free market. Let the market decide what channels add value, not socialist analysts or politicians. At least try to let the end user have more control.

NickD
Premium Member
join:2000-11-17
Princeton Junction, NJ

NickD to Kilroy

Premium Member

to Kilroy

Re: Sports - the only reason for cable

NFL Sunday Ticket is available online, and ESPN3 is available if your cable company subscribes to it, which means you can watch that even without a TV subscription.

CSRWRK
@cvgs.net

CSRWRK to tmc8080

Anon

to tmc8080

Re: Wow...

I work for one of the larger cable companies in the States and I think highly underestimate the amount of people in this country that are a slaves to their televisons and would never care to have internet video content avalible to them --some even turn it down when it's free with what they subscribe to ex: HBO/MAX GO, epix, watch espn-- let alone understand how to access the content itself. The current industry models and practices are old and outdated, but so is alot of the consumer base itself --and not just the old people-- so these models will continues thrive as long as the consumer base lets it, and from the looks of my day job it will be a very long time.
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