Techie2000
In Vertigo
Premium
join:2001-12-05
clubs: | If channels are so expensive...
Then offer them a la carte style. You just pay for the individual channels that you want....
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rid0617
join:2003-07-20
Greer, SC
| Don't include junk
shopping channels, bulletin board channels or public access channels in the pricing package. half of what Charter cable has on here is free to air stations and everytime they supposedly upgrade its garbage you wouldn't watch if it was the only channel on the TV. |
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MEDIAN2k3
Where Ya Goin?
Premium
join:2002-12-04
Bronx, NY
clubs: | seperate but equal
too bad you cant just pay the company separate from your cable tv company. |
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oliphant5
Got Identity?
Premium
join:2003-05-24
Corona, CA | reply to Techie2000
Re: If channels are so expensive...
That's what they're looking to do. Separate out the gougers like ABC, Fox and ESPN. |
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Techie2000
In Vertigo
Premium
join:2001-12-05
clubs:
| No not the stupid packaging stuff that they are doing where you pay $10 a month for basic or $80 a month for expanded with all the "gougers" but rather you pay $0.08 a month for CBS, $3 for ESPN, etc.
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BBR's BF1942 Clan - Putting the combat into combat engineer. |
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Deus
Premium
join:2000-10-04
Brooklyn, NY
clubs:
 ·Optimum Online
| reply to Techie2000
That sounds nice and dandy, but in my case they have taken sport channels I once had and only given me a $.50 credit for those lost channels. If I want to subscribe to those channels it'll cost me at least an additional $4.00. How does that add up? It would be nice if they took off almost the same amount of money from your bill for those channels as it is to subscribe to them.
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"It's not like our pitchers have pinpoint control," Piniella said. "We are leading the majors in hit batters. And that's not intentional, believe me. The only time that we haven't hit a batter this year is when I ordered it... for retaliation."-YahooSport |
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rshoch
Premium
join:2003-09-01
Santa Ana, CA
|  Don't Worry, Be Happy.
It is intensely moving to witness the bountiful fruits of free market capitalism. I slumber peacefully knowing that the highly competitive Cable Industry bestows upon its uniquely valued consumers the highest value programming for the lowest possible cost. I know that our wise and selfless government leaders would allow nothing less. |
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marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
| reply to rid0617
Re: Don't include junk
said by rid0617  :
shopping channels, bulletin board channels or public access channels in the pricing package. half of what Charter cable has on here is free to air stations and everytime they supposedly upgrade its garbage you wouldn't watch if it was the only channel on the TV.
The home shopping channels are some of the most demanded channels out there, and certainly cause the most complaints in volume and vehemence when they go off the air. PEG channels are required by the city you live in and are not something the cable company is ever going to be able to take off the basic tier.
The reason you do not see individual a la carte programming is that, until companies force everyone to use digital cable, it is a logistical nightmare.
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pepperhead
join:2001-10-18
Bowling Green, KY
| Go ahead make my day
Where does Cox get this 8% number. You mean to tell me the wife beating channel "Lifetime" and other channels are doing better. Our cable company offers Soap TV and the Golf Channel on the regular cable. We also got stupid religious channels no one watches and PAX TV. Oh yeah lets not forget ABC family which often show stuff I wouldn't call family. Meanwhile you have to get the digital package to get TV Land. Why can't they ask us what we want. If my cable company decides to get rid of ESPN they will lose a costumer.
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"Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." - Bennett Marco |
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pepperhead
join:2001-10-18
Bowling Green, KY
| reply to marigolds
Re: Don't include junk
said by marigolds :
The reason you do not see individual a la carte programming is that, until companies force everyone to use digital cable, it is a logistical nightmare.
I think this is what the cable companies what to do. They just don't want to do it at no extra charge. They want to force all us to move up to the digital package.
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"Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." - Bennett Marco |
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oliphant5
Got Identity?
Premium
join:2003-05-24
Corona, CA
1 edit | -coughullsh!t-
The complaining of sports programming increases isn't a new event. Cox and Dish Network have complained of insane double digit programming increases for years. ESPN and Fox with 20-35% increases...yearly!!!
Cable companies would rather keep costs down than make up the margit in price increases which pisses off customers.
Until Cox and Dish Network...programmers were just free to rape the distributors in secret because they are the middlemen to the consumers. Now it's a PR war. Now people can get both sides and see what these sports programmers are demanding.
I'm glad that DBS and cable distributors are standing up against these price increases.
As for the Consumer Union report...I like how they say "Ignoring the market presence of Direct Broadcast Satellite TV...". Uh...you CAN'T IGNORE IT...they're competitors for a majority of video programming offered by cable (save for HDTV locals and special services like VoD).
It's not that hard to do the math when you have a large group of programmers like Disney (ABC, ESPN)and Fox taking YEARLY double digit increases that you'll see single digit increases from distributors of the programming.
I also love how they IGNORE capital expenditures and labor costs. They act as if programming and M&As are a DBS and cable operator's only expense. All sectors of business operating expensives have gone up...from the cost of buying property to employee benefit expenses. Just in California alone, cable operators (as all businesses here) face high double to low triple digit yearly increases in Worker's Compensation Insurance rates.
You can't take small portion of the company books and create a ficticous margin of programming vs revenue from programming. That margin is all the margin they get. That margin is what is used to cover ALL their expenses, not just programming. Their report is a complete joke that misleads consumers...they aren't getting the whole picture of COB for DBS and cable distributors.
They also ignore the term for recouping capital investments. They act as if the day after deployment a new service is profitable...it's not. Revenues for months if not years go back to repaying that investment. You don't spend a $1,000/customer and when you start making a $250/yr margin on the customer that its free money. The original $1,000 came from somewhere and to break even has to go back.
If they wanted to have an honest report, they would include all COB, from programming to labor, property to utilities. Then...after all that is said and done the numbers don't justify the increases so be it. But to take programing vs programming revenue is like taking the cost to restripe the parking lot versus programming revenue. It's not the complete picture and is completely irrelevant.
The facts is, all costs are going up for DBS and cable operators...but programming is going up disproportionally to most of their other costs cutting into the margin that is normally used to offset normal increases in COB.
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pepperhead
join:2001-10-18
Bowling Green, KY
| reply to oliphant5
Re: If channels are so expensive...
Speaking of ESPN they keep showing less good stuff. They picked up the NBA and their NHL coverage has suffered. NoW they are wasting time in the morning showing that stupid "Cold Pizza" show. Spike TV, Cold Pizza and American Movie Classics that shows the same garbage that is on TNT and TBS. Where do they find these idiots.
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"Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." - Bennett Marco |
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oliphant5
Got Identity?
Premium
join:2003-05-24
Corona, CA
| reply to pepperhead
Re: Go ahead make my day
C.I.P....you think those are worthless channels but may actually cost operator a fortune. ABC Family for instance. Cable and DBS operators weren't interested in paying the insane fees for zero-ratings channels like ABC Family. In 2002, Echostar had a dispute with ABC »makethemplayfair.com/docs/reuters_200204.pdf over the costs of ESPN Classic and ABC Family. So what ABC does is threaten to deny rebroadcast rights for regular ABC network programming (it's not mentioned in the article, but was mentioned by the Echostar CEO during what of his Charlie Chats.
In fact SkyReport had an article about DirecTV threatening to drop ABC Family over a 35% increase even though ABC Family couldn't pull a rating point.
»www.skyreport.com/viewskyreport.···eID=1061
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major marco
Res Firma Mitescere Nescit
Premium
join:2003-02-13
Stepford, CA
clubs:
| Greedy Cable Cos.
As a Cox subscriber I tend to side with ESPN - Cox is forcing customers to pay for their cable internet/phone upgrades and infrastructure. One thing is for certain, if Cox doesn't watch itself with the continual price hike BS then it will surely lose a lot of customers to satellite dishes because I for one, am really tired of the perpetual increases to my cable bill. No cable co. is worth forking over $50.00/mo. to for substandard programming.
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oliphant5
Got Identity?
Premium
join:2003-05-24
Corona, CA
| And Disney and Fox's yearly 30% increases for their programming (eg, ESPNs ABC Family) have nothing to do with it? Please.
And DBS providers are facing the same problems »makethemplayfair.com/docs/reuters_200204.pdf threatening to drop prgramming...and so far it's worked. Now cable operators are going the same route...threatening to drop programming rather than just having to pass on rate increases to customers.
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Don't get it, demand it! The Anime Network »www.theanimenetwork.com/index.html |
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crazediamond
That's Dr. Craze to you
Premium
join:2002-01-19
Germantown, MD
| kind of ironic
I was thinking the other day, when i heard yet another cable tv ad (from adelphia while im watching their cable) telling about the horrors of using a dish.
1)hidden fees-funny because my cable bill has more fees than my parents dishnetwork
2)THEY MAKE YOU SIGN A CONTRACT-well ill be damned, they make you sign a contract and yo udont want to do that, they might jack up the prices on you. just like adelphia has done several times this year.
of course, the ironic part is this: cable companies signed a contract with abc to carry their networks, now the cable companies are throwing a fit because of the end result of the contract. how funny, they should take their own advice!
from makethemplayfair.com "Cox is contractually prohibited by the sports networks from providing these channels on an optional service tier. "
this made my day
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im a bad one, im a sad one, im a sick one, with a smile ---BBr|craze UT2k3 Clan Admin |
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panth1
The Coyote
join:2000-12-11
Boca Raton, FL
| Works both ways...
"ESPN suggests via the new campaign that the hikes are due to network improvements for "services like cable modems and telephone that most of you do not use."
And what are ESPN's rate hikes for? To support their new HD studio, HD channel and the outrageous contracts they pay the NFL, NHL, NBA, and etc.
"and that subscribers are only paying $2.61 of the $40 a month bill for basic cable."
What about those that don't watch ESPN? Why should they pay $2.61+ for the network because they won't allow it to be on a seperate tier.
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ISPs: Road Runner/Powerlink Status: Road Runner |
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BillRoland
Premium
join:2001-01-21
Ocala, FL
clubs:
·Cox HSI
| Missing some stuff
Well, Cox backed Fox off from a 35% rate hike in Arizona down to 4-9% (»[AZ] Cox, Fox Sports reach agreement). Should make you wonder who's really telling the truth here if Fox can demand 35% and settle for 4-9%.
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"Don't steal. The government hates competition." |
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72276539
Premium
join:2001-01-19
Atlanta, GA
| reply to pepperhead
Re: Don't include junk
said by pepperhead :
said by marigolds :
The reason you do not see individual a la carte programming is that, until companies force everyone to use digital cable, it is a logistical nightmare.
I think this is what the cable companies what to do. They just don't want to do it at no extra charge. They want to force all us to move up to the digital package.
That is what Charter is doing, they took all the PPV's and moved them to digital as part of the plan. Its too bad the digital package has got to be one of the most horrible available, no real extra channels except music and ton of pay channels. No DVR is available so something like TIVO is a must. I would sign up for digital if it would be worth it, but until they give more value well Charter can piss off.
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some people believe in astrology others believe in technology some people believe in all those -ologies but i believe in swordfish |
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golden eagle
Aquila chrysaetos
Premium
join:2002-08-06
On a cliff
clubs:
| reply to oliphant5
Re: If channels are so expensive...
said by oliphant5 :
That's what they're looking to do. Separate out the gougers like ABC, Fox and ESPN.
Funny thing is that I recall the sports channels were "a la carte" for a while back in the 80's. It's just an ugly vicious cycle reinventing itself.
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Pain is just fear leaving the body. |
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