A La Carte Cable Antitrust Suit Dismissed → Impossible until all digital

This wont be feasable at all, especially for cable, until there is an all digital lineup. There arent filters created for the Hz spectrum for single channels; and to do so, the cost would be so high, it would be something like $18/channel.

And many cable systems are moving in that direction right now, and the two DBS companies have been there since they launched around 15 years ago.

True, you need an all digital system. But in countries that have a la carte selections, the price low:

said by John McCain and Kevin Martin, »fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_ ··· 54A1.pdf :

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Make Cable Go A La Carte
As Published in the Los Angeles Times on May 25, 2006

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Real-world examples illustrate the benefits of greater choice and more competition coming through our TV sets. In Hong Kong, viewers can select and pay for only the channels they want. A family that wants to watch sports, movies, news and children's programming can receive 15 free channels plus a selection of 11 additional digital channels (including ESPN, HBO, CNN Headline News, National Geographic Channel, Animal Planet and Discovery Channel) for only $27.50 a month. To get a package that includes those channels in Washington, the cost is $82 per month — almost $1,000 a year. That's quite a difference.

Similarly, in Canada, digital subscribers can buy channels individually or enjoy significant savings on a "5 pack," a "10 pack" or a "15 pack" of their own choosing.

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Yes there are. They are called band stop or notch filters.

One need only look at the prices previously charged for BUD service and current bulk / MDU / Free-to-guest rates to see what ala carte could do for the consumer.

I would expect, that most customers would actually pay MORE with ala-carte as an option - because we'd actually buy more channels that we want, and cable/satelco would have a "basic connection" charge. But we'd be happy, because we actually get to choose what we want to watch, and not what we don't. Why is there is so much opposition to freedom of choice?

I think the main reason industry opposes ala carte, is that it simply easier math to limit us to a short menu of tiers. Comcast and Time-Warner's rate sheets already fill an 8.5x11 sheet with 6 point type. Imagine the complication their $10/hour customer service clerks (or worse, the $2/hour Bombay clerks) would have dealing with billing issues.

Further, those brightest-guys-in-the-room Harvard MBAs love to have pricing models where we all fit in to convenient boxes. Choice would be a nightmare for them.

Yawn