said by maartena:One of the problems facing smaller cable ops is that they can't keep up with the content and media companies who are charging increasingly higher prices, and the price per viewer with smaller companies is higher. I hate to say it, but small cable ops need the income from hardware boxes to survive and to be able to compete against the giants like DirecTV and Dish, which can be used anywhere there is electricity and nothing blocking the southern sky. The big competition is able to secure deals at a much better "bulk" rate, where a small company with e.g. 50,000 customers will pay a higher price per channel.
Some small cable operations have actually seriously considered dropping television altogether and focusing on internet only. This is another reason why the rates that content and media companies charge for their channels should be disclosed. Every cable company should get the same deal, which isn't the case right now. I know this isn't an easy task, if not an impossible task because contracts do not just include redistribution rights, but often rights for TVAnywhere, access to streaming portals with cable logon, etc, etc.... Furthermore, this kind of information typically doesn't get leaked to the public so it is hard to confirm pricing without a mole inside.
Smaller cable companies already feel the pressure from giant providers, including ones that want to buy them out. The inevitable end result here is that small operators can't compete and will either start dropping channels, or will be bought out and swallowed up by a big company.
I am all in favor of third-party box competition, by the way.... but its a lot harder for smaller cable ops that may only have 2 or 3 different boxes to support and may have to make investments that are a wee bit higher proportionally than bigger cable companies. Its a thin line that small cable companies are walking.
So screw over the customers of these smaller companies then instead of screwing over them? These companies either need to sell to the big guys or go to offering internet only. The local cable company in my area should beg Charter to buy them. Their customers would get better service and cheaper pricing.
