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| Broadcasters share a good amount of the blame The broadcasters, like ESPN share the blame for channel bundling.
When a cable co. goes to ESPN to carry their channels, ESPN sells them a channel set (including some Disney stuff, etc) and in the contract the cable co has to carry all of those channels within a certain package range. That way ESPN is guaranteed to get more exposure than they may by selling their channels al la carte.
The broadcasters who own groups of channels will use the popularity of ESPN to force the cable co to carry other less popular channels. It's that way with most of the major broadcasters.
Al la carte pricing will most likely raise the price of individual channels because rather than a cable or DBS co. getting a big group rate ESPN will have to charge more becuase they would loose a large portion of their mandatory subscribers.
Who knows how much it would cost to buy ESPN al la carte??? Right now the cable co. pays a per subscriber fee for every single subscriber who has that package. If a good half of the people who have no interest in ESPN dropped their subscribership. . .ESPN would have to make up for the revenue in HUGE al la carte charges.
Overall I think it would probably cost more to al la carte channels for the majority of subcribers, not everyone, but most. | |
kubus
join:2000-12-22
Irwin, PA | Almost got it right Skywarp, it's the networks that come to MSO's for the carriage deals. But yes, ESPN and ESPN 2 are the staples, and then as part of the package, MSO will have to carry News and Classics, the College Sports Network. ABC Family is treated somewhat separate from ESPN, and it holds it's own with pretty good ratings.
The most recent ESPN carriage deal with Comcast, called for about $3.70 per subscriber. ESPN has grounds to charge that much, they pull in strong ratings and have nice local avials package.
In any case, a la carte is BS. It is not a solution (solution is in your damn remote) and will cause even more problems and will run up the cost of cable. Not to mention that niche channels will never have a chance to develope and we are all going to be stuck with more of the same, which is pretty much crap. The only solution, and something pretty much every MSO jumped on is VOD push. With VOD, each network has additional outlet for commercial inventory, it will offer an engaged viewer (a lot of agencies will be asking for guarantees on engaged viewer, so far only Court TV has done it), and most of all, it will offer the choice for people that don't know how to use their remote.
All McCain is doing is trying to make himself look good, however to me he looks like a control freak, taking away the choices. | |
| reply to SKYWARP
The mere fact that ESPN puts a must carry provision in their contract futher errodes public confidence and trust that it is a channel worth carrying and MUST be dropped! Let the WEAK channels DIE a MEANINGFUL DEATH! Only channels people want should be carried. Once you kill off the weak stuff, the popular stuff will survive. Even turner networks knows when to kill of channels (CNN-FN). You need to stop using the baseball team strategy to think about revenue sharing when buying TV SERVICE.. companies like ESPN for example getting the lion's share (like the Yankees ) and others getting .10 cents per month per subscriber (Not that I would put ESPN in the same class as the Yankees, but the revenue disparty is the same)
Yes, there should be bundles... but ONLY consumer driven, not INDUSTRY driven. The industry must not be driven by SPORTS, or polticical based power.. power needs to be in the consumers' hands. Everyone has this concept of cable-tv as this universe that everyone must come from planet earth, otherwise you dont' exist--watching the same tv, being manipulated by media, etc.
At some time in the future, tv will be increasingly broadcast over the internet and people will need to face the fact that cable tv will die an eventual death as we know it because consumers are already tuning out things they don't want, and soon they won't have to pay for it either! In my opinion, companies like ESPN should be investigated for ANTI-TRUST, strong arm tactics and go the way of ENRON.
Our economy works on supply and demand, with few exceptions and cable tv is one that for the most part flies in the face of free-market, supply-demand, more like take it or leave it. I personally coudn't see a block of 100 channels going for $20 cheaper just because ESPN was included!
I don't know about your fast foot restaurants, but in mine.. the a-la-carte menu has cheaper items as well as expensive ones and once you have choice, you ain't going back. Die ESPN, DIE! | |
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