 MajestikWorld Traveler
Premium Member
join:2001-05-11
Tulsa, OK |
to JimThePCGuy
Re: I'm skepticalMy Ala Carte....
Netflix-$8/mo.
Slingboxes - $0/mo
Hulu-$0/mo.
OTA-$0/mo.
iTunes and Vudu-varies 1-3 movies/year.
Amazon-$0/mo.
Can access many cable channels on websites and YouTube.
With ebooks,audiobook,podcast,tunein,travel,sailing,work,home activities,working out at the gym,etc. I really don't watch that much.
The only TV show I've been watching lately was Doc Martin on PBS.
I ask Cox for a ala carte type setup in the late 90s.Didn't make sense to pay for so many channels when I only watched 6. They said no and laughed. Canceled it right then. That was in the late 90s and been less than $15/mo. since. Also bought shares AT&T,Comcast,and Amazon for my 401k and IRA Roth back then because I know the majority love their TV shows and movies.
I wish Cox and AT&T will stop sending me mail. These "final offer" and "last chance" letters are too much. This mail goes straight into my garage shredder. |
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to JimThePCGuy
Again, what makes you think that it would be that price and with the additional fees?
Essentially what is going to happen is competition on the content side vs what we have now which is welfare subsidized model supported by trans fees. |
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 JimThePCGuyFormerly known as schja01.
MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL |
said by sandman_1:Again, what makes you think that it would be that price and with the additional fees? They are all WAGs for the sake of conversation. I have no inside information on the subject. Do you really thing the incumbents are going to give up their cash cow without a fight? |
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1 edit |
to JimThePCGuy
Anybody can pull numbers out of their ass.
Current Model:
Expanded Basic $100/mo
Premium Channels $15/mo
A la Carte:
Premium Channels $15/mo
Sports Channels $5/mo
Network Channels $1/mo
Other Non Premium Channels $.50-$.99/mo
In the end - less channels, less crap and more of what WE want and when WE want it. |
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JimThePCGuyFormerly known as schja01.
MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL
1 edit |
I hope you are right. |
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 Pathfinder5Dazed Confused
Premium Member
join:2000-03-26
New York, NY |
to Skippy25
said by Skippy25:Anybody and pull numbers out of their ass.
Current Model:
Expanded Basic $100/mo
Premium Channels $15/mo
A la Carte:
Premium Channels $15/mo
Sports Channels $5/mo
Network Channels $1/mo
Other Non Premium Channels $.50-$.99/mo
In the end - less channels, less crap and more of what WE want and when WE want it. Don't you think there will be a basic cable charge, say $20 for just bringing you the pleasure of choice? I can see ala carte being more expensive with less choice then a bundle. |
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to Mr Guy
They can ask whatever they want. However, they will only get what the market ultimately decides it is worth and that ultimately is what this is all about. |
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jdofaz
join:2013-04-15
Phoenix, AZ |
to pandora
Re: Take some parallels to the music industryI remember that too but what you forget is not all the channels were available as al a carte.
I remember reading Dish eliminated that option because eventually too many channels didn't allow being sold al a carte. |
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1 recommendation |
to Mr Guy
Re: I'm skepticalStop being so negative.
As I pointed out above to another one of your silly "the sky is falling" comments, they will get what the market decides. They will have as many commercials as the market is willing to accept. And they will take the reduction (or increase) in revenues the consumers are willing to give them or they will adapt the business or go out of business. It is as simple as that and that is exactly how it should be. |
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| Skippy25 |
to Pathfinder5
I am sure there will be a basic cable charge which will probably 100% set and collected by the "cable companies". He didnt mention it so I didnt either.
Either way, I still foresee a la carte being cheaper for a vast majority of people.
EDIT: Also, keep in mind that a la carte does not eliminate bundles. They can still do bundles, but they will need to be more creative with them. |
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| Skippy25 |
to jw asdlwe
Re: we are so screwedOnly if we allow exclusive deals.
The only purpose of an exclusive deal (regardless of industry) is to encourage people to your service when they had already decided your service was not worth the quality or price to begin with. Thus is props up a bad company and their inflated prices. |
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Skippy25
1 recommendation |
to Mr Guy
Re: won't save a dimeMommy?!? |
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JimThePCGuyFormerly known as schja01.
MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL |
to Pathfinder5
Re: I'm skepticalGood point.
Look at your electric and gas bills.
Infrastructure maintenance fee.
Delivery charge.
You can be the cable companies will have those on those ala carte bills. |
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 TamaraBQuestion The Current Paradigm
Premium Member
join:2000-11-08
Da Bronx ·Verizon FiOS
Ubiquiti NSM5
Synology RT2600ac
Apple AirPort Extreme (2013)
3 recommendations |
to elefante72
Re: Take some parallels to the music industrysaid by elefante72:Look at the music industry. When I was a kid the only way to get music (legally) was to buy the entire album .... Not so! I was able to purchase single songs on 45RPM vinyl records, never had to buy entire albums. Then, uber-greed set in, and the albums ruled. Services like iTunes and Amazon went back to basics, and are doing quite well selling singles like in the good old days. Unlike the cable industry, the record industry started out fair and became corrupted, whereas the cable industry started out corrupted, became even more corrupt, and will eventually die a welcomed death. As a result, I NEVER subscribed to cable, and never will. It's too late for cable, technology is rapidly making them irrelevant. Their only valid use today is as a dumb pipe, through which all the good stuff flows. |
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Probitas
Anon
2014-Apr-29 1:31 pm
Evolve or dieAsk the dinosaurs how ignoring the problems evident by their size and required nutrition intake to sustain that large body and their being cold-blooded worked out for them. I could draw a lot of parallels between dinosaurs and cable companies.
Cable companies need to adapt or die. People will not take being forced to accept their standards, they always have the choice to just walk away. Perhaps cable companies, and other companies operating similar policies (hint, ISP, hint), should remember that, their audience is only captive if they let themselves BE captive. If internet becomes a necessity, or is in fact one, then it needs to be treated as such by regulation.
You cannot have your cake and eat it too, that never works out. |
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 Costaproud PIE-RATE
join:2007-07-06
Selden, NY |
Costa
Member
2014-Apr-29 1:34 pm
A possible solution......I have the solution to the a la carte vs. buying in bulk arguement. Both are unacceptable to either the cable operators and the consumer. So what I would propose is "splitting the baby" which is have smaller bundle packages. Example bundle all the sports channels and sell them as the "sports package" or bundle all the news channels and sell them as the "news package". Same with kids, family, men's & women's packages. That way people will buy more what they want. You could also give discounts for bundling 3 or more packages. I think that's the happy medium the cable co's and customers could be content with. |
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to Bugsy
Re: Just stop making us subsidize channels we don't watchVerizon SelectHD has no sports, no regional sports, and no Fox News. I like to watch Fox News because to me it's the yin comedy channel. Then I flip to MSNBC and watch the yang comedy channel. Nobody in their right mind think news channels are even close to reporting the news. The top either spins to the left or the right... In any case no matter what channel I flip to my taxes keep going up, so I guess it doesn't matter what channel it is on  You need to move to a FiOS town. My all in was $77 w/ selectHD and a cable card. |
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 MxxCon
join:1999-11-19
Brooklyn, NY |
to Skippy25
Re: we are so screwedand how exactly will you not allow exclusive deals? |
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| MxxCon |
to boredsysadm
Re: won't save a dimehow the hell is he astroturfer?!
What is says is very reasonable and realistic.
Yes, we all want alacarte, but none of the cable companies will allow it if it means they get a measly $20/household.
They will resist it for as long as possible until it will come to gov't involvement. At that point they will offer you alacarte for $20/channel, so your same 4-8 channels will turn into the same $100+ bill.
CableCo's excuse will be they worked to bundle channels to save you money. But now you don't get that bundle which means you are paying equivalent of MSRP for those channels.
This is not astroturfing. This is a realistic point of view of how cable industry will behave when faced with 90% revenue drop. |
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| MxxCon |
to Costa
Re: A possible solution......Competing providers won't agree to that.
CNN and FoxNews will sooner fabricate WW3 than allow their channels to be bundled together. |
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to elefante72
Re: Just stop making us subsidize channels we don't watchThat's great news to me that Verizon has an offering that dumps some of the excess I wouldn't want.
My all in right now, though, is $18 for Netflix and Hulu Plus, and I still watch too much TV. I'm actually satisfied where I am now, so no need to move to a FIOS town.
As an aside, one of the things I like best about all these OTT services, as well as online viewing, is that the TV doesn't just keep playing when a show is over. You must consciously choose to continue watching and select what to watch. Often I'm multi-tasking during shows, interacting on Facebook for example, then once the show is over the online activity takes over all my attention… it may be 20 minutes later that I realize there is no TV playing and I've actually turned normally unproductive solo passive viewing time into active and sometimes socially engaged time.
As for cable news, I think all of them have become poor quality "infotainment" products, including CNN and MSNBC (with just a few exceptions, many of which are available on Apple TV as video podcasts), so I don't miss them. Fox, which I only see through The Daily Show and online posts, abandoned the "info" part of infotainment some time ago. They are "disinfotainment." |
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to morbo
Re: I'm skepticalAnd most cable companies couldn't care less what channels you took. Most will charge your "out the door to take anything at all" fee to service your address, and will take a minimal profit on the channel portion themselves, especially at first when content providers jack up the price per channel for not having things bundled up the way they want.
Cable Co. makes their cash with the eliminated overhead of content out of their way in the "service fee", and you get what you want and pay close the the same or maybe a little less.... or more. |
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pandora
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Outland |
to jdofaz
Re: Take some parallels to the music industrysaid by jdofaz:I remember that too but what you forget is not all the channels were available as al a carte.
I remember reading Dish eliminated that option because eventually too many channels didn't allow being sold al a carte. I recall evaluating the al a carte vs the packages, and the savings on channels I'd watch were small. I don't recall which channels were included, but the list excluded HBO, Showtime and what not. |
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| pandora |
to morbo
said by morbo:Times have changed. It's best to view the internet as a la carte information to the masses. You can pick and choose what you want to consume. Once you view it like that, you can see how a la carte for TV will thrive. Maybe, choice is a good thing, people's preferences change over time. You may be correct, but it seems fair to mention this has happened before. |
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elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA
1 recommendation |
to pandora
said by pandora:I recall evaluating the al a carte vs the packages, and the savings on channels I'd watch were small.
I don't recall which channels were included, but the list excluded HBO, Showtime and what not. [from SatelliteGuys] What is DishPix?Dishpix is a seldom advertised programming alternative on E*. Rather than signing up for a fixed package like the Top40 or Top100CD, you get 10 channels of your choice for $15/month. There are some restrictions on your choices, however. The Disney networks, for instance, are not available as a choice. (Nor are any of the channels sold in premium packages). The full list of available channels is: A&E, AMC, Animal Planet, BET, Bravo, Cartoon Network, CBS Eye On People, Classic Sports Network, CNBC, CNN, CNN financial, CNN international, Comedy Central, Country Music Television, Court TV, C-Span, C-Span 2, Discovery Channel, E!, ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNews, EWTN, Family Channel, Game Show Channel, Headline News, History Channel, Home & Garden, Home Shopping Network, KTLA, Learning Channel, Lifetime, MSNBC, Nashville Network, NET, QVC, Sci-Fi Channel, TBN, TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, Travel Channel, TV Food Network, USA Network, Weather Channel, WGN, WPIX, WSBK, and WWOR. |
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CXM_SplicerLooking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC |
to Skippy25
Re: I'm skepticalExactly! This would be a move to a more free market system where demand dictates production... not highest profitability to a middle man. |
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| CXM_Splicer |
to Killa200
said by Killa200:And most cable companies couldn't care less what channels you took. Most will charge your "out the door to take anything at all" fee to service your address, and will take a minimal profit on the channel portion themselves Doubtful as this would make bills of people who keep most channels astronomically high. You would be pushing away your best customers in order to cheat the guy who only wants a couple of channels. |
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| CXM_Splicer |
to Skippy25
said by Skippy25:Stop being so negative. Some people have stock in these cable companies and realize that this would cause their share price to drop and the dividends to dry up. They should get over it and buy a different stock if they don't like the performance of ones they have... that is their choice. |
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| CXM_Splicer |
to JimThePCGuy
Aren't they collecting that already? I have a $19.99/mo Internet only package that MUST include the connection fee or they wouldn't be making a profit. With that connection already taken care of, I should be able to add channels to that service at only the cost of the channel. |
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pandora
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Outland |
to elray
Re: Take some parallels to the music industrysaid by elray:[from SatelliteGuys]
What is DishPix? That sounds like it, thanks. I found a link here that may be helpful - » www.satelliteguys.us/thr ··· 29/page3From one of the posts DixPix was cool. This was way back when it was AT40. You could pick any 10 stations (except Disney) for $10. I've got an old chart from 96 from a dealer that shows it
AT40 at the time( obviously names have changed)
A&E
Cartoon
CNBC
CNN
CNNI
CNN FN
Comedy
CMT
Court
C-Span
Discovery
E!
ESPN
ESPN2
EWTN
Family Channel
CNN HN
History
HGTV
HSN
Learning
Lifetime
Nashville Network (now Spike)
Nick
QVC
Sci Fi
TBN
TBS
TNT
Travel
TCM
Food Network
USA
VH1
Weather
WGN
WPIX (yes they were in the package)
KTLA (yes they were in the package) Looks like it was killed in 2010. IIRC when I read about it, there was a minimum of 10 channels for $10, and $1 for each additional channel, plus a $5 receiver charge. |
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