I heard on WABC talk radio this morning that the FCC wants cable companies to offer TV channels "a la carte" to give consumers more choice. Considering how harsh I was on the FCC's e911 requirements this morning, I have to commend the FCC on this one. I planned on blogging my thoughts on the FCC helping to bring more choice to the consumer, but Rich Tehrani beat me to it. Go check out Rich's blog post on TV channel ala carte. I'll just say I'm sick and tired of paying $55/month for cable TV and getting less channels than satellite and paying for channels I could care less about. According to the radio show, the FCC order is "non-binding" - it's more of a suggestion to the cable companies and even if the FCC makes it binding, the cable companies will fight this tooth and nail.
I've been pricing out satellite solutions for the past few days to switch over. The only reason I've been stalling this long is that I also have cable broadband (at a ridiculously expensive $39.99/month for 3Mbps) and didn't want to have to switch to DSL. Pain in the butt to change both your broadband provider and your TV provider at the same time. But the time has come. Cable companies have been robbing me blind for years and I'm not going to take it any more! Satellite & DSL here I come!
FCC wants ala carte TV channels
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I only wish that satellite came in better. Every business I was at up North that had satellite, had bad reception. The salesman for DISH could not explain to me how I could get Israel, England and Germany all on channel 55. Satellite would be cool, if I really could get all the channels I want cheaper. Problem is that DISH charges big bucks for each foreign channel. And, I still would not get Australian rules football or English Rugby channels. I am stuck with NFL and American sport boredoms. I do support the FCC rule and hope they do make it binding and that it sticks. It would save me hundreds of dollars, as I only like 4 channels on cable regularly and would only subscribe to 10 of them.
I like the idea of cable ala carte. If they are concerned about the cost being higher, here's a suggestion. Make package deals allowing people to choose those stations that would add up to the cost of that package. For example: If a package for $19.99/month includes having a minimum of 5 channels, then I as a consumer would have the choice of choosing - abc, espn, lifetime, bet, & cnn. So forth and so on. I currently won't purchase cable because I don't want all the crap that is offered.
At last - tv station at our request.
One satellite provider used to offer ala carte programming a few years back -- unfortunately, DirectTV and Dish Network drove them out of business. I agree that the cable companies are ripping off the public by forcing us to buy a bunch of junk channels we don't even watch (and how about the informercial "paid programming" we're also paying for in the late evening hours?!!!!) The simple solution, however, is our power, as united consumers, to force them to offer what we want. Cancel your cable and satellite subscriptions until ala carte programming is in fact offered!!!!! Some sacrifice in the short term always pays off in the long run. If we remain unwilling to part from our expensive but worthless subscriptions for the relatively short time it would take to effect change, then we can count on never seeing ala carte programming, while the programming offered continues to decline in quality while rising in cost.
Even though I only watch 15 t.v. stations out of 120 , cable and satellite companies will never change their package deals to pay per channel. it wont happen. keep dreaming folks.
Of course it won't happen, then the channels no one WANTS would have no income! heh
-another consumer who pays for 200+ channels and only has 30 or so configured under the tv guide menu "favorites" on dish. Never so much as look at the other channels, so why scroll through them when trying to find a show to watch.