| reply to morbo
Re: Crap costs baby. this has been covered countless times and was even agreed upon by the FCC until Mr. Martin the Anti-Cable witch took over. Programming costs WILL go up if Ala Carte replaces the current system. Consider this: most programmers own multiple stations. MSO's receive discounts on contracts by carrying all of the programmers networks. MSO's also receive discounts by placing networks on certain tiers. It guarantees a certain amount of eyes which helps the programmers sell advertising on those networks. If the programmers can't guarantee those same viewers because the network isn't on the standard cable package anymore the costs for that channel will go up. Those costs will be passed straight on the consumer. You might pay $1/mo out of your current cable bill for ESPN now, but if Ala Carte takes over you could pay $10/mo for it (I'm only using those figures as an example, they don't necessarily represent true costs). So for $50/mo now you get 70 channels, but with ala carte you get 10 channels for $50 or $60, depending on your chosen networks. Plus, all of the variety we currently have could go away if networks can't keep advertisers and don't have a large viewing audience now. Wave goodbye to niche programming.
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three6ohchris |
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 morboComplete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000 | i agree, programming costs WILL GO UP with a la carte, BUT what will also happen is that channels will have to price themselves competitively else they will go out of business. there's no way that 10 channels would (or should) cost $50 or $60 under a la carte while 70 channels cost $50 under the traditional system.
this FUD about a la carte and how it will somehow cost MORE for a fraction of the channels is cableco's wet dream. |
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