Re: Sports and egos drive the cost increases -

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skuv

@rr.com

reply to bn1221

Re: Sports and egos drive the cost increases

said by bn1221:

I would pay $1 a month per high def channel. You can give me Discovery, History, Food and Travel. You can shove your WE, BET, VH1, FSN, HSN and all sports channels up appropriate orifice.

Of course why let me pay 12 a month for the 10 channels I watch then you can make me pay 50 for them and only give my 5 I actually like.

But it's the content providers that make this happen, not the cable company. Even if the cable company could give you a la carte channels, they'd have to charge you more per channel just to make up for the extra channels they still have to pay for PER SUBSCRIBER.

I don't think very many people that want to argue that cable companies should just let you buy the channels you want really understand how cable companies have to purchase channels.

Did you know that ESPN is available without a cable box because Disney wants the cable companies to pay for EVERY subscriber (except the basic cable customers) to have ESPN. Even if they never watch it. ESPN is making money from people that don't even watch the channel. Because Disney wants it that way, or they'll refuse to let any cable or satellite company have the channel. And no one is going to play hardball to drop the channel because their customers will just go to their competitors to get it.

The only way any of this is going to change is if ALL PROVIDERS refuse at once to accept the arbitrary carry requirements and payments from the content sources.

But no one is going to go it alone. TWC already got flack for not paying NFL Network for every subscriber, so the NFL told people they should switch to DirecTV. Because DirecTV has already made a deal with NFL, their deal is even sweeter since NFL is helping them steal customers.

It's not right that a cable company should have to pay for every subscriber to have a channel that not everyone watches. But that's how business has been done, and no one is willing to take that first step and refuse the big channels, because it will only cause them to lose subscribers as everyone else is too scared to reject the deal.

to forum · permalink · 2009-11-26 21:32:48 ·

Time Warner Cable Fires Broadside At Broadcasters > Sports and egos drive the cost increases

Re: Sports and egos drive the cost increases