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A la carte cable, what would your perfect "system" consist of?

V

vibe

Inspired by the last thread about whether cable is worth the $'s we pay for, there has been numerous mention of a la carte cable. Are you in favor of it? What would your potential individual system consist of?
Ours would consist of the following:
The big 5, ABC,CBS,NBC,FOX, and PBS 1 station each.
ESPN and The Golf Channel. The regional sports channel if priced reasonably.
CNN and CNN Headline News.
The Sundance Channel and Independent Film Channels.
Court TV
American Life TV
Turner Classic Movies
American Movie Classics (presumably with fewer commercials)
The History Channel/The Discover Channel (maybe).
Music Choice (we like a lot of different music.
No cartoons, pray for view, shopping, children or teen channels. There may be 1 or 2 more we might need/watch. I'm curious to see how others weigh in on this.
 
All local broadcasters in their analog and digital formats and all available local sports channels plus the news stations. NO LIFETIME OR RELIGIOUS STATIONS! :(
 
Since we are going for perfection here is what I can think of off the top of my head. . .
All NYC DMA stations and rimshots and any subchannels they may have (including WLNY, CPTV and NJN)
One network (plus PBS) o&o/affil from every time zone from the US and Canada (one needs alternate stations)
All the Toronto stations and rimshots and any subchannels they may have (and I guess Buffalo, too)
WGBH (and digital subs)
WETA (and digital subs)
MPT (and digital subs)
WWME-CA
NY1
SNY
MSG
FSNY
YES
NYCTV
Bloomberg
News12 (all of them)
All of the UK OTA networks and all BBC channels from the UK
BBC World
BBC America
Sky News
CBC Newsworld
CTV NewsNet
CablePulse 24
Business News Network
DW-TV
CNBC (all of them)
MSNBC
CNN
MSNBC
FNC
Turner Classic Movies
WGN (both feeds)
WSBK
CSPAN (all networks)
CPAC
NECN
Discovery Channel
Sleuth
 
I'll take my broadcast stations off the air...no reason to pay for what is available for free.

As for the a la carte service that I'd be interested in:

HDNet and HDNet Movies
Sci Fi HD
Universal HD
Turner Classic Movies

Offhand, I'm not sure that there is anything else out there that I'd be interested enough to pay for...I guess I wouldn't be an especially profitable customer for any service provider.
 
One idea might be a simple $20 'cheap channel' tier, similar to the family plan that Dish Network has.

Or, more preferably, an a-la-carte package allowing your choice of twenty of the smaller, 'digital tier' channels for $20--You could add the 'big basics' at $5 a channel.

I think my above plan would work--I think it'd expand the reach of these smaller channels, and the cable companies/content producers would still make money (they'd likely get more $ per subscriber for each channel than they do now). And you'd only pay for what you wanted without subsidizing what you don't.

Nate's personal 'Twenty for Twenty': CSTV, Versus, ESPNU, Sleuth, TVOne, Hallmark Channel, COLORS TV, C-SPAN, C-SPAN2, Current TV, NickToons, Indie Film Channel, Turner Classic Movies, Boomerang, Link TV, Science Channel, Discovery Health, National Geographic Channel, Fuse, and VH1 Classic.
 
how come we're all forgetting the weather channel? i mean, local on the 8's and the OH MY GOD it's a HURRICANE run for your lives!! reports are important.
 
TWC is one I forgot to list; also Comedy Central and TNT. TWC serves a great purpose when not showing their "forecast earth" and other crappe during the early evening at the height of the tornado season. I was making up the perfect system based on the current cable tv listings/stations in our area. In a "perfect" system I would enjoy the various superstations from Chicago, Denver, NYC etc.
 
All the local digital channels and their subchannels
All th ESPN's and FSN's
NFL Network
Vs
The mtn
Big Ten Network
CNN
MSNBC
All the CNN's
Fox News
TNT
TBS
Speed Channel
F/x
AMC & Turner Clasic Movies
Cartoon Network and Boomerang
Nick
VH1 Classic
Game Show Network
G4
CSTV
Travel Channel
Food Network
ABC Family (only in December)
Turner Classic Movies & AMC
Comedy Central
CMT & GAC
Weather Channel
All the C-SPAN's


Man I wish there was "Vault Disney" channel all by itself. I miss that block very much.
 
I like having access to all channels, however, I'd certainly delete Fox News Channel if given the choice. Actually, I could do without all the "news" channels.
 
I'm with Mark...I would take my OTA channel's and then these...

ESPN
Regional Sports
Food Network
TLC
Disney (we have a young one!)

...and I think that would be it. For me Al la Carte pricing would allow me to only pay for what I really watch. While BBC America is fun once in a while I really wouldn't miss it...or the 'live jewelry auctions' that are always good for a laugh!
 
Here are the channels I would want:
ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, and NBC.
ABC Family
Sports Channels
Spike TV
MTV and VH1 Digital Channels
News Channels
BBC America
FX
GSN
Boomerang
TV Land
Movie Channels
Comedy Central
 
All Toledo and Detroit OTA channels and subchannels
CBET Windsor (CBC)
CNN
ESPN
ESPN2
ESPN Classic
FSN Detroit
SportsTime Ohio
Vs.
NFL Network (yeah, I'm a hopeless sports junkie)
TBS
WGN (Chicago feed if at all possible)
Cartoon Network
Weather Channel
 
Before you even worry with what you would put on it, how about some ground rules for the way such a thing would be implemented.
Here's my suggestion:
1. All local broadcast stations that requested must-carry would be available in all homes.

2. Any broadcast station or cable channel that had no subscriber fee would be available in all homes.

3. All other channels would be available only to those homes that requested them and paid for them individually. There could be no bundling of channels.

4. Cable/satellite systems could not collect or pay fees to broadcast stations or cable channels other than subscription fees.

5. Consumers could only change their subscription lineup once a month.

Thoughts?
 
tested said:
Before you even worry with what you would put on it, how about some ground rules for the way such a thing would be implemented.
Here's my suggestion:
3. All other channels would be available only to those homes that requested them and paid for them individually. There could be no bundling of channels.
.
.
.
Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Yeah, why no bundling? If there is a certain package that customers want, why shouldn't they be allowed to pay less for the bundle than they would for each individual package? Think of buying a car. You can order the options you want separately, but can save some money if they are bundled.
 
dhett said:
tested said:
Before you even worry with what you would put on it, how about some ground rules for the way such a thing would be implemented.
Here's my suggestion:
3. All other channels would be available only to those homes that requested them and paid for them individually. There could be no bundling of channels.
Click to expand...

Yeah, why no bundling? If there is a certain package that customers want, why shouldn't they be allowed to pay less for the bundle than they would for each individual package? Think of buying a car. You can order the options you want separately, but can save some money if they are bundled.
Click to expand...

For one thing there's no assurance that bundles would save you money. Plus, bundling is essentially what we have now. That's the nature of the "tiers" you get with your current cable system.
 
tested said:
For one thing there's no assurance that bundles would save you money. Plus, bundling is essentially what we have now. That's the nature of the "tiers" you get with your current cable system.
Click to expand...

The difference is, under the current system, bundling is mandatory. On an a la carte system, they could not make bundling mandatory, but they should still be able to offer optional bundling. Just like option packages when you buy a car. That way, bundling will fail unless the companies are saving their customers enough money to make it worth their while.
 
dhett said:
tested said:
For one thing there's no assurance that bundles would save you money. Plus, bundling is essentially what we have now. That's the nature of the "tiers" you get with your current cable system.
Click to expand...

The difference is, under the current system, bundling is mandatory. On an a la carte system, they could not make bundling mandatory, but they should still be able to offer optional bundling. Just like option packages when you buy a car. That way, bundling will fail unless the companies are saving their customers enough money to make it worth their while.
Click to expand...

Good point. Then perhaps just a ban on mandatory bundling would be in order. Although, I still suspect that what would wind up happening is the cable companies would offer a few huge bundles and make individual channels very expensive. The end result would be a lot of people feeling they had to take the bundle and we'd wind up with much the same situation we have today.
 
Yeah, I would have a combination bundle-a la carte system, plus some mandatory channels (basically the OTAs). Bundling might not lead to pseudo-forced bundling if the FCC imposed price controls. Ideally, individual channels should cost less than the bundle they may be a part of, but the bundle should cost less than purchasing all the channels in it separately. (That is, one channel < bundle of 5 channels < 5 channels purchased separately.)

However, I would make any channel that was newly added to a cable system free and mandatory for one month to drum up interest for the channel.

Also, some channels would have prerequisites. Doesn't make sense to have ESPN2 but not ESPN. I'd also have "X channels of your choice free, anything after that a low price per month" so you could sort of "make your own bundle" if you wished.

One idea: One channel is $1.99 per month, and a bundle of five channels would cost $4.99 per month, on top of the basic rate for OTAs.
 
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