FCC said to support a-la-carte cable plans

[unixronin]

Or so says PC Magazine:

"Channel choice is increasingly significant to consumers as the number of channels included in expanded basic, and the corresponding price to consumers, has continued to skyrocket," [FCC chairman Kevin] Martin wrote. "Indeed, cable rates have more than doubled in the last ten years. Cable companies often point to the increased number of channels being offered as an explanation for the increase in prices. This explanation, however, ignores the fact that most of these channels are not actually being watched."

Not to mention the minor detail that the programing on those unwatched channels is usually somewhere between one and two Sturgeons.¹  It gets even worse when one or two of the channels you want is only available in an add-on package that doesn't contain anything else you care about.  For instance, on our Comcrap er, I'm sorry, I meant Comcast service right now, we had to go up a service level and add something like an extra hundred channels to get about six channels we actually wanted.  We can't get Discovery channel in high-definition without getting all of the sports channels, which we couldn't give a rip about, in high-definition as well.  And if memory serves, if I want the Military Channel (formerly known as Wings), I have to add another hundred channels to get it, not one of which I care about.  If we could pay, say, a flat $10 to $15 a month for actual connection to the service, then buy just the channels we actually wanted at a dollar per channel per month, we'd cut our cable bill in half.  Easily.  Even at two dollars a channel, we'd still save money, and wouldn't have the channel menu filled up with five or six hundred channels we never, ever, EVER watch.

And that, of course, is why the cable companies absolutely hate the idea, and fight it tooth and nail.  (They bleat about technical difficulties keeping track of it all, but come on, people ... it takes one bit per channel per customer to track it.  The digital computer has been invented, after all.)

[1]  I use the Sturgeon as a unit of crappiness, after SF author Theodore Sturgeon's maxim that "90% of everything is crud."  It's sort of like talking about sigmas or standard deviations — two Sturgeons means 90% of the remainder, or 99% of the total, is crud; three Sturgeons is 99.9%; and so on.  I believe this is a unit of measurement that should be much more widely used.

Comments

A cable service like that is about the only thing that would entice me to get cable again

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I haven't had it for 16 years now. Of course, I don't watch regular TV, either, but if I could just watch what I want to see, I'd think about it.

Re: A cable service like that is about the only thing that would entice me to get cable again

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

We're looking forward to availability of FiOS TV here. It's still bundled, but the bundle model is almost flat, the basic bundle contains every channel we care about, and Verizon wants half what Comcast does for the service.

Re: A cable service like that is about the only thing that would entice me to get cable again

[bfudlmint.livejournal.com]

The other thing the cable companies don't like to admit is that basic service hasn't gotten any better but the basic prices are what they have been raising. I love the letter Comcast sent me saying they were raising the rate for my basic cable because of all the improvements to digital cable.

Don't expect FiOS to be an improvement. I recently priced replacing my cable TV service with FiOS. After configuring everything to give me about the same functionality I have now the package cost me exactly the same. I gain channels but I lose the ability to watch them on any TV other than the one with the converter box. BTW Verizon charges you for every converter box. I am pretty sure I need to get the box with the DVR because I won't be able to use my ReplayTV DVR anymore with FiOS.

Re: A cable service like that is about the only thing that would entice me to get cable again

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I love the letter Comcast sent me saying they were raising the rate for my basic cable because of all the improvements to digital cable.

We got a cute little letter from Comcast too. It was basically a blatant admission that they're going to start gouging HD DVR customers an extra $3 a month to subsidize dropping the price $1 a month for SD DVR customers. (Another reason we're looking forward to ditching them when we can.)