Cablevision Likes A La Carte Too > I still want an explaination

I still want an explaination

The non-english channels are usually "must-carry" by FCC guideline -- anything within 50 miles of whereever your cable operator is based or transmits from... so in a sense, they are saddled with those channels as much as you are.

The company I used to work for had about 5 of these that were must carry and people complained constantly - nothing the Cable Operator can do about it though.

The Golf channel on the other hand... I got nothing
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WCD

Brian: Hey, barkeep, whose leg do you have to hump to get a dry martini around here?

reply to WorkinClsDog
I want Fox Sports Pittsburgh. I live in Arizona and have Cox. My only option is to get DirecTV and play an extra 10 bucks for all of the fox sports channels. All I want is Fox Sports Pittsburgh. I'd pay 5 bucks a month for that.

reply to dadkins

reply to Slacker44
Of course, it might just happen that a la carte would mean that all the currently available channels would have to compete for viewers and consequently have to lower their prices per subscriber. This would also mean that they would have to have advertising as many do now and compete for viewers so as to raise their ad rates since they would no longer be assured of the regular payments of the cablecos that they recieve now for block carriage of threir channels.

Such a thing, of course, would mean that the marginal channels, not owned by a cableco would not be able to survive, since they would not be able to attract enough viewers/ad revenue. After all, there IS a finite limit to the TV ad dollars out there.

As far as must carry, the cable companies must carry local broadcast channels AND pay them for that carriage, unless the broadcast station waives that payment each year. Needless to say, the vast majority dont waive it and this payment becomes a massive chunk of profit for the stations on the cable co subscribers backs

reply to novaflare

reply to Slacker44
I can't understand why you are all complaining. You bitch and complain that they don't add new channels, but then turn around and ask for them to bill you separately for each one individually???

The Cable Companies will never win no matter how you look at it, and no matter what they do, you, the consumer will lose.

I, for one, would like to have hundreds of channels available to me... all in all, $80 a month for Digital Cable is not all that much. Your bill will go higher if you choose to have Cable Internet and VOIP through your Cable Company as well... and then again, everyone for years asked to have all the stuff "on one bill in one easy convenient place so you only have to write one check!" and now they are doing that... and people are complaining that it's costing too much. If you were getting 3 bills at 3 different times of the month, for 3 separate services through your Cable Company, I bet there would be a lot less complaining.

The FCC needs to come up with a better option than just blanket A la Carte. Also, Cable Companies can force you to have a set top box. All they have to do is scramble every non must-carry station in your area, and that's it. You're cut off from everything except the local broadcast networks. Then what? You want those extra 5 channels and nothing else... they will force you to get a STB so they can authorize only the channels you want.

You also need to remember that Dish Network and I believe DirecTV have clauses in their customer agreement that allow them to charge a "surcharge" when you add or remove programming. -- I know Cablevision will charge you when you downgrade services... I can imagine Cablevision charging a fee every time you go to make a change to your service. So this A La Carte could get very expensive, very quickly, especially if it cuts into Cable Company revenue, and then forces them to start nickel and dimming you for every single thing you do to your account.
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