techpuppy said:
This actually looks like an attractive package to supplement OTA reception.......... Ideally I'd love ala carte channels or at least a choose your channels package for so much.
After Feb. 1, customers such as yourself who are pulling locals via OTA reception will be able to drop local channels through your dish and realize a $5 reduction in your monthly bill. Good news for you!
If subscription TV providers like E*, D*, and cable companies are forced by the government to provide a la carte programming someday it probably won't be as low priced as what people are dreaming of. Why you ask? The reason is that content providers such as Viacom and others sell their channels in bundles. For instance, if E* wanted to purchase the rights to offer just Comedy Central from Viacom they could not do so. If E* wants to purchase the rights to offer Comedy Central they must also do the same for channel x, channel y, and channel z.
Now let's say that a la carte is mandated by the government (which the govt has no right doing). Let's also say that channels x, y, and z are fluff or niche channels that only a small minority of E* customers end up subscribing to. Obviously E* paid big $$$ for the package including Comedy Central and channels x, y, and z.
E* isn't going to make back their money for the package based on the subscriptions to channels x, y, and z. So guess which channel is going to carry the load of the cost? That's right, the more popular channel, Comedy Central becomes rather pricey.