fiberguy
My views are my own.
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join:2005-05-20
| Re: Need a cable box said by steelhead78  : The problem now would be people complaining about having to pay for a box for each tv. ...and for that? I can't wait to hear the complaint! I, too, am sure that will happen. It will only prove that people want everything and are willing to give nothing in return.
You will not see the cable companies restructuring the analog tiers to accommodate these changes. It's a lot of work, too costly, and takes too much time. You'd have to visit every customer that's already trapped, you wind up exposing channels that people never wanted in the first place - it's just a mess to even try.
I have a VERY sneaky feeling that I know what WILL happen to makes these tiers work... More people that just the family tiers will be required to get the box. I see the only way this will work is to pull those family friendly channels off of analog (which will free up space) and move them to digital. You will see channels like ABC Family, Discovery, History, Disney, Animal Planet, TLC, Nick, USA, TV Land, Hallmark etc... (a lot of which is basic 2) get pulled and moved to digital. This means that if you want a Family package, you will need a box.. If you don't care about the family package, you will STILL need a box to get those channels if you want to keep them.
The idea of the family tier is to ONLY delivery those family friendly channels to the home. Yes, you can place a box on the TV and only authorize those FF channels. Parents will get furious if their kids can pull the input from th box, go straight to the TV, and get non-family friendly channels.
All of this to supposedly save the"family hour" as it was put during hearings yesterday (watched C-SPAN) - It was a VERY good comment which Jon Stewart made on the daily show last night to that ... "WHAT family hour?"
I love when people cry for these things... they NEVER realize the other consequences that come with it. During the re-reg act of 96, people figured that it would protect their rates, make their monthly bills go down, etc... The fact remained that under the new laws, more bills went UP under the new formulas than they did now.
Anyone that thinks the cable companies stepping forward to be the bigger man about all this is naive. The cable companies will benefit from this VERY much so. Not to mention, this could potentially hurt bells in their launch of TV service as there will be families in their world wanting those packages as well which will be lower in price. Why does it hurt? Less revenue and slower returns depending on how many people take them up on it too.
Funny how this all works huh?  |
