I’d pay a hook up charge of $5 a month and $1 for every channel I wanted.
If cable channeles went ala carte it would likely result in many of the niche channels going out of business. More discussion can be found in this relatively short thread.
One thing to keep in mind is that when all is said and done, it’s not the non-sports fans subsidizing the sports channels, it’s the sports fans subsidizing the niche channels.
If cable channels were a la carte, I’d guess that a lot of the channels with smaller audiences would go dark. for the most part, these would be channels that have targeted narrow audiences.
Uh … What Ellis Dee said.
I’ve got my selection of channels/packages pretty well dialed in so I get all the channels I want without too much fluff. I’d be willing to get rid of all the Spanish, Shopping and Sports channels if I could save even $10/month. But my TiVo ignores those stations anyways, so I don’t really give them much thought anyways.
I have a feeling that as soon as I say “I don’t want channel ‘x’,” it will suddenly be brought to my attention that there is one show on there that I absolutely love, and can no longer see. So, with that in mind, I’m going to say that I like having the channel packages.
That’s my concern. I’d be worried I’d go over to a la carte and then all of a sudden realize I haven’t seen Show X in 3 weeks. But, I’d still be comfortable giving up all the Sports Channels. I know I don’t watch those.
I just looked at the link to the thread you mentioned.
Call me dense, but I don’t see how sports fans are doing anything whatsoever to subsidize the other channels - if anything, that thread proves that everyone else is coughing up big bucks to subsidize hugely expensive sports channels.
I would LOVE to get a la carte cable. All I watch on TV is sports so my lineup would assure I got all the games I am interested in. All the ESPNs. The networks for NFL. WGN for Cubs baseball. Some sort of college sports package. Etc. But not the sports niche channels for things I’m not interested in (golf, auto racing, hockey).
And HGTV for my wife. That’s the only channel she watches.
That’s it.
I’ve got over 800 DVDs and Netflix so I don’t need movie channels. And I get my news from the daily paper, so don’t need news channels either. On the very rare occassion I think I might be interested in a TV show, I’ll Netflix through it at some point. (I did that with The Sopranos and an getting Deadwood right now).
I remember hearing that at first the religious channels were for a la carte, and then they learned that it would hurt them so they changed their position to preferring to keep channels bundled.
Anyway, let’s see, my wife and I would probably keep…
[ul]
[li]Keep local channels - News, Community, Fringe, David Letterman, The Office, Poker After Dark.[/li][li]**Comedy Central **- Futurama, Daily Show, Colbert Report.[/li][li]Lifetime - Project Runway, Reba.[/li][li]Food Network - Iron Chef America, Next Iron Chef, Challenge, other shows I can’t think of.[/li][li]GSN - High Stakes Poker.[/li][li]IFC - Never really watch it, but there might be a movie on I would want to see.[/li][li]AMC - Walking Dead.[/li][li]MTV - Silent Library, about 2am or so they play music videos.[/li][li]VH1 - About 2am or so they play music videos.[/li][li]VH1 Classic - That Metal Show, I love the 80’s/90’s/00’s, 120 Minutes.[/li][li]BBC America - The Graham Norton Show, Doctor Who.[/li][li]CNN - I like news.[/li][li]HLN - Dido.[/li][li]TLC - Cake Boss.[/li][/ul]
USA.
Cartoon Network.
AMC.
MSNBC.
Both C-Spans.
CNN.
Fox News.
TNT.
Comedy Central.
Oh yeah, I forgot about Cartoon Network.
Sports fans are subsidizing other channels due to the number of sports fans paying for the niche channels that so few people (by comparison) ever watch. So while tens of millions of sports fans fork over money for the bundled package that includes ESPN, the spillover effect lets niche channels like Discovery Science stay in business by virtue of being part of the same bundle.
Without bundled packages, those niche channels would cost an arm and a leg, and their audience wouldn’t pay so they’d go out of business.
To put it more simply, the only reason those channels are so cheap compared to ESPN is because they enjoy the benefit of being in a package with ESPN. That means there are tens of millions of people paying for them who wouldn’t if they had a choice. Take away those tens of millions, and now you’d be paying $10+ per niche channel instead of 99 cents.
If the cable companies ever actually get off their asses and implement a-la-carte, it’ll be too late. Why pay for an entire channel when I only want to watch a single show? I can wait to rent / buy the DVD set of the show, or I can buy episodes from places like iTunes. I may be able to watch the show on Hulu, or even on the channel’s website. (I only watch CSI because I can view it on CBS.com. I like the show, but not enough to watch it otherwise.)
Obviously, many shows are not available (legally) online, but that’s clearly the way things are trending. By the time the cable companies begin to implement a-la-carte, such a game-changer will already have been game-changed without them.
It’s not a matter of cable companies not getting off their asses and implementing the better al-la-carte system, because a-la-carte is not a better system.
It’s better for everyone that the channels are bundled together into packages because niche channeles wouldn’t exist without them.
I enjoyed subscribing a la carte because it cost less than packages that included stuff I didn’t watch.
So, if the niche channels are so poorly watched, let them die. Any programming they have that’s worth watching can be absorbed by another station, or not.
I no longer have a dog in this fight as I’ve gotten rid of my cable, thank goodness, but I would have put up with it longer if I had the opportunity to purchase only the stations I wanted, and if that meant I’d miss out on a few shows I like because the station could no longer sustain itself under the new system, then so be it; I’d learn to live with the stations and shows I could have.
The writing’s on the wall. TV in its current form is dying, and the cable companies are helping it along through shortsighted greed.
What channels do you get, and how much do they cost?
CBAND is quitting as of December.
Here is a price list.
How do you know?
You may have a correct conclusion, but there’s a hidden assumption in the argument I think you’re making. That assumption is that the viewership of a channel would not increase under a-la-carte. For example, I would be willing to pay a certain amount of money for The Science Channel. I honestly don’t know how much that amount is, since I’m not particularly familiar with its programming. But it sounds like something I’d really like, so let’s say I’d be willing to pay $15 a month just for that channel. Maybe the current number of viewers of the Science Channel could not support the channel at $15 a month. But right now, the Science Channel is making no money off of me whatsoever, because I am not a viewer! I’m not counted in the current viewership. If there are many people like me (and I am not making the claim that there are - I honestly don’t know), then viewership could very well increase to a level where the channel could support itself.
Again, your conclusion may be correct, but you certainly haven’t proven it.
If it is in a cable package you are buying, you are paying for it.
Just as I helped pay for sports channels I didn’t watch in a satellite package. 