Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
 ·Comcast
| I get 99 channels...
I get 99 channels right now. I watch at most 10 of those. The others are 'fillers' to keep my (rising) cost of TV service down.
I doubt, seriously, that if A La Carte was available, that my 10 channels would be any cheaper.
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YourIP.US - It's Your IP .. and more!
rr.cx - Personal Site.. coming soon. |
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SD6
join:2005-03-26
| Say Yes to a la Carte (in some form)
It's been mentioned in the FIOS TV forum several times that the minimum cost for FIOS TV service to a typical house with multiple TV's starts at about $60. There is still value at that price with 200 channels, but what if you want to watch just a few common CATV channels? You still have to pay $60.
Why? Lack of competition. They charge that much because they can. IPTV is a long way coming and will still not be acceptable alternative to those boob tube viewers out there.
I don't care if it's done on the national level as McCain proposes or on a local level through revision of FCC rules on franchising. But there should be a way to do it. |
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RockCake
Premium
join:2005-07-12
Woodbridge, VA | reply to Rob
Re: I get 99 channels...
Same here (and I don't think I even watch 10!) |
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RayW
Premium
join:2001-09-01
Layton, UT
clubs:
 ·XMission
| reply to Rob
said by Rob  :I get 99 channels right now. I watch at most 10 of those. The others are 'fillers' to keep my (rising) cost of TV service down. I doubt, seriously, that if A La Carte was available, that my 10 channels would be any cheaper. Of course not, since the providers have to prove that Martin et al. are wrong they will raise the cost of service by some calculated amount so that every time you say you do NOT want a channel, they increase your total bill. (Seems to me the providers have basically said that is what they will do, because it costs more to tell the computer to only to send you what you want????)
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I am not lost, I find myself every time. |
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M A R K
Premium
join:2001-06-15
Long Island
clubs: | Kids, TV and CRAP
This might work out good if you don't want some things in your home at all. MTV, BET, and any other channel with sluts grinding to rap music.
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Zionism is a hate crime |
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PolarBear
The bear formerly known as aaron8301
Premium
join:2005-01-03
·CableOne
| What it currently costs
I currently get about 180 channels for $50/mo. That's $0.28 per channel. I highly doubt any TV provider that offers a la carte will offer it anywhere near that cheap. I am thinking anywhere from $1 to $2 per channel. For that price, you might as well pay the $50 to get them all.
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"I invented it, Bill made it famous." --David Bradley, the inventor of Ctrl+Alt+Del. |
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nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD
·Comcast
| reply to SD6
Re: Say Yes to a la Carte (in some form)
it's not just the telco or cableco, however, it's also the companies that provide the content.
FIOS wants Disney channel? they also have to carry 3 or 4 other channels (like an HGTV or something else that a lot of people don't watch).
I think there are currently one or two cablecos and DISH fighting with content providers about the cost of carrying a particular channel. |
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bhorow
join:2004-05-17
Forest Hills, NY
| I say this every year.
AL La Carte is the worst idea ever. I wish people stop blaming the cable companies, when its programming costs that drive the increases in cable t.v. Cable companies also have to pay their workers; Cable is the only industry that people think that they should pay nothing for. You don't go into a food store and say hey why is my Frosted Flakes so darn expensive , lets get the government to regulate how much you pay for frosted flakes.
In fact the price for standard service has gone down, and the price for digital service went up. $1.00. |
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nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD
·Comcast
| reply to PolarBear
Re: What it currently costs
said by PolarBear :I currently get about 180 channels for $50/mo. That's $0.28 per channel. I highly doubt any TV provider that offers a la carte will offer it anywhere near that cheap. I am thinking anywhere from $1 to $2 per channel. For that price, you might as well pay the $50 to get them all. I think we would be lucky if channels are only $1 or $2 per; I wouldn't be surprised if it's more like $4 or $5 per.
Hell, at $2/channel you could get 15 channels for $30 - I don't even know if I could find 15 I like. At $5 though, you're right back at that $50 price point for only 10 channels.
Unless there is real competition or the government mandates prices, the cablecos will price the per channel cost to get them the same amount of revenue they were making before.
It's going to be like AT&T and DSL with no phone service: before they agreed to a price as a condition for the merger they were charging more for DSL w/out phone than with phone. |
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Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
·Comcast
| reply to PolarBear
said by PolarBear :I currently get about 180 channels for $50/mo. That's $0.28 per channel. I highly doubt any TV provider that offers a la carte will offer it anywhere near that cheap. I am thinking anywhere from $1 to $2 per channel. For that price, you might as well pay the $50 to get them all. Yea or a cost per a channel based on the number of channels. So if you subscribe to only 5 channels, it'll be $5.50/channel and if you subscribe to 10+ channels, it's 4.50/channel and if you subscribe to 20+ it's 3.50/channel and so on.
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YourIP.US - It's Your IP .. and more!
rr.cx - Personal Site.. coming soon. |
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Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
·Comcast
| reply to bhorow
Re: I say this every year.
said by bhorow :In fact the price for standard service has gone down, and the price for digital service went up. $1.00. I see your fact and raise you a b.s. My 'standard service' has gone up.
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YourIP.US - It's Your IP .. and more!
rr.cx - Personal Site.. coming soon. |
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Jim Gurd
Premium
join:2000-07-08
Plymouth, MI
·AT&T DSL Service
·Comcast
| reply to nasadude
Re: Say Yes to a la Carte (in some form)
said by nasadude :FIOS wants Disney channel? they also have to carry 3 or 4 other channels (like an HGTV or something else that a lot of people don't watch). I don't know how they get away with doing that. It seems like that would be illegal product tying to me.
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We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company.
-- Ernestine |
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SD6
join:2005-03-26
| reply to RayW
Re: I get 99 channels...
said by RayW :said by Rob :I get 99 channels right now. I watch at most 10 of those. The others are 'fillers' to keep my (rising) cost of TV service down. I doubt, seriously, that if A La Carte was available, that my 10 channels would be any cheaper. Of course not, since the providers have to prove that Martin et al. are wrong they will raise the cost of service by some calculated amount so that every time you say you do NOT want a channel, they increase your total bill. (Seems to me the providers have basically said that is what they will do, because it costs more to tell the computer to only to send you what you want????) They could easily provide a small number of different tiers. |
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nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD
·Comcast
| reply to bhorow
Re: I say this every year.
there is some blame with the content providers, but the cablecos are making a killing too.
In the DC area, comcast finally agreed to carry the Nationals baseball games but indicated they were going to increase price by over $2 just for this one channel, but only had to pay MASN a little over a $1. 100% markup is pretty good - for comcast.
Bottom line: the whole system is stacked against the consumers; unless everything is fixed, it ain't gonna get any cheaper for us no matter what happens. |
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lew_jean
join:2005-05-13
Marietta, GA
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| A Better Idea
I have over 100 channels and don't watch a 1/3 of them.
A better idea would be to offer a Sport channel package, Home Shopping Package, Music package ect. this way you can select the packages you want
we do not watch the sports or home shopping channels, and can not remember the last time we listen to any of the music Comcast offers |
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XknightHawkX
join:2003-02-13
Morton, IL
clubs:
| Cable rate hikes?
We don't need some of these channels that come in basic packages. The channels raise their price so cable raises theirs to cover it. Now the problem is that sport and music channels keep raising their rates. Take ESPN off the basic packages and take the stupid MTV off the packages (what does mtv stand for now?). I don't watch sports, I am not into sports, I don't need my bill to go up cause the sports networks have to pay more to the franchises. Music channels like MTV aren't music anymore. The last time I seen MTV it was a bunch of stupid shows. I don't remember seeing any music videos. Too many useless channels getting added to the basic package. Do we really need a food network,a golf network,a home shopping network? Stop raising our bills and stop giving us useless crap channels. |
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bbenso1
join:2004-11-28
Baltimore, MD
| reply to bhorow
Re: I say this every year.
said by bhorow : You don't go into a food store and say hey why is my Frosted Flakes so darn expensive , lets get the government to regulate how much you pay for frosted flakes. Right. That's because what you do is walk across the street/down the road to the next grocery store and buy your frosted flakes there for a lower price. It's called competition and it does wonders for prices.
Where I live, if I don't like the prices that comcast charges I have two choices: pay them anyway, or don't get service. Fios TV is not yet available in my area and the exposure I need to get satellite TV is blocked by trees that don't belong to me. There is no provider except Comcast that can give me TV service. Hence, they can charge whatever they want and I have to pay it or get no service at all. And yes, no TV service would be an option for me, but it's apparently not an option for my fiancee which makes it not an option for me. |
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Dogwood
Premium
join:2001-01-14
Texas
clubs: 
| FCC changes name to AT&T
The cable companies just aren't paying Martin and Rep FCC members like the Telco are.
They need to step up and write the big checks for those vacations, corporate jet trips, and employment opportunities after the Gov job is over, like the Telcos do.
Otherwise, the Martin and the Rep FCC members will just keep slamming the cable companies like have been.
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Proud Member of Team Discovery |
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inteller
Sociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK | reply to SD6
Re: I get 99 channels...
yeah, but every tier would include just one channel you want, and then 20 shopping and sports channels you dont.
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"WHEN THE LAUGH TRACK STARTS THEN THE FUN STARTS!" |
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inteller
Sociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK
| reply to lew_jean
Re: A Better Idea
if they did that all the home shopping networks would die (that would be a good thing) the sports network packages would be too expensive (good or bad depending on how you look at it)
Right now, I would like to subscribe to a HD only tier. I'd pay the same amount right now to get ONLY HD channels, including all the HBO HDs that I dont currently get. They can swap out ALL of my 'digital' and analog channels for just HD.
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"WHEN THE LAUGH TRACK STARTS THEN THE FUN STARTS!" |
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