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Home » Controversial Topics » Current Issues » Al-a-carte cable--how many cable channels do you really watch (please read before answering poll)
Al-a-carte cable--how many cable channels do you really watch (please read before answering poll)
Poll
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| | 6 votes (33.33%) | ||
| | 5 votes (27.77%) | ||
| No votes (0%) | |||
| | 1 vote (5.55%) | ||
| | 2 votes (11.11%) | ||
| | 1 vote (5.55%) | ||
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18 members have voted
| January 5th, 2013 at 8:00:44 AM permalink | |
| AZDuffman Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 135 Posts: 18210 | Intel announced this week that they will try to sell cable TV al-a-carte. Some say it cannot be done. For others it is long awaited. POLL QUESTION: How many channels do you watch in the say 85% of the time you are not just randomly flipping channels? I can see this being a good idea. For me, I spend 90% of my time on Food Network, Nat-Geo, Discovery, History/H2, Military, FoxNews/Business, and CNBC. I have no use for so many of the others--Oprah, the gay channel, the black channel, the church channel, and even ESPN. They could dissapear and I would not know. I would pay a little for CBC and some other foreign channels, plus the indie movie channel. I'd love to make my own package. Even if they did the Chinese-Menu option of "Pick 8 form A, 8 from B and 8 from C" it would be better to me than what we have today to me. Would you sign up for such a plan? The President is a fink. |
| January 5th, 2013 at 9:54:40 AM permalink | |
| TheCesspit Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 23 Posts: 1929 | When I have TV I watch the 2 local affliates that have the NFL games on, the Food channel and the History Network. I'd make the 6 if I could get ScyFy and a Comedy Network type channel, and possibly a 7th in HBO. In my ideal world, I'd want to pay only for the NFL games I want to watch (Pay per view)... about $10 for the Lions game on the weeks I want to watch them at home would be ideal for me if I had to pay no other fees to watch TV. I think a la carte is a great idea. It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die.... it's called Life |
| January 5th, 2013 at 2:22:25 PM permalink | |
| FarFromVegas Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 3 Posts: 121 | With 6 people in the family it's cheaper to take the packages. We have DirectTV in the vacation house and we picked the smallest, cheapest package that had kid channels to keep the youngest one entertained and it's basically useless for the rest of us. One TV, very few channels, and still 40 bucks a month. With cable we've got 3 TVs plus we sprung for the digital box downstairs with two movie packages (and you get the On Demand stuff) and the cable internet (we have to pay a different company for internet out in the desert) so we get so much more for three times the price once you factor the extra internet service. My husband gets his sports, the teenagers get TruTV and Discovery and their animal shows, the youngest gets her Disney fix, and I get whatever I feel like at the moment, and we all get movies. But not everyone travels in such a large pack. My m-i-l lives alone and she cheaped out on her cable to save money and she loves coming over here to watch everything. Maybe I should spring to pay for digital cable at her house! (Actually, she's been over at her daughter's house dogsitting lately so I've been off the hook for her entertainment for a while.) This space for rent |
| January 5th, 2013 at 2:32:05 PM permalink | |
| Face Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 61 Posts: 3941 |
That'd be the one thing that would make me get service again. Out of the standard dish package, all I ever watched was a small block of the sciency stuff (Discovery, Military, History), and even those I hardly watched as they went to more "empty calorie" stuff like pawn shop and storage container based "reality". As for the extra-pay channels, SPEED is the only one I ever went for, and I'd pay it again. NHL and NFL network would be nice, but I could never justify spending that much money for it. I'd easily pay $20 for the maybe 5 channels I'd actually watch, but since they want me to pay $70 for the hundred or so I don't care for, plus extra for the SPEED, NHL, and NFL I'd really want, then tough luck. I'll just stream my sports fix from the UK ;) Be bold and risk defeat, or be cautious and encourage it. |
| January 5th, 2013 at 3:40:43 PM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
When you say "it can't be done", it is clearly a business decision and not a technical problem. Comcast owns SyFy, Bravo, Chiller, Hallmark,Bravo, Telemundo, E!, mun2, iVillage, cloo, G4, mun2, NBC, NBC news, CNBC world, and NBC Sports. Clearly none of those channels are going to be available on a per demand basis. ABC, CBS, and FOX own an equally large list of stations. I don't know what kind of stations Intel will have as options, but cable TV is a multi billion dollar business which won't willingly disband itself overnight. |
| January 5th, 2013 at 4:39:14 PM permalink | |
| Mission146 Administrator Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 23 Posts: 4147 | Our family of four watches a total of ten channels. "War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen..let us give them all they want." William T. Sherman |
| January 5th, 2013 at 5:35:20 PM permalink | |
| AZDuffman Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 135 Posts: 18210 |
Definately. Limbaugh talked about this once and laughed at the logic behind it, paraphrasing it to, "the cable providers are saying since nobody watces these little channels we have to make people take them or nobody would take them." In other words, "Current TV" is watched by so few people that if we didn't force it into a package nobody would watch. But so few people still watch it went belly-up. The channels like it because they get a per-subscriber fee. Perhaps $0.20 for Current TV to $5 for ESPN. A few years back some providers were going to make ESPN a premium channel similar to HBO and ESPN went nuts. The cable companies like that they can sell local ads as part of their agreement. Who doesn't like it is the consumer who watches just a few channels. If you don't care about ESPN you still pay that $5 somewhere. If they can put a commercial to just my house they can put just the channels I want. The President is a fink. |
| January 5th, 2013 at 6:50:08 PM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
Well, the whole idea of "channels" may go away entirely as TV develops into a giant "Pay per View" scheme or similar to the older billing per minutes of long distance. For instance today on TVLAND I see from 11:00 to 13:00
So instead of paying $125/month for TV, Internet, Phone + TIVO box, I would pay some set fee for the service, I would go to a classic comedy sitcom site, where they would let me watch the pilot episode for free, and then charge me ten cents per episode to watch any episode of Andy Griffith show I want. Right now I can purchase a DVD of a season of Andy Griffith show for $14.85 (or roughly 50 cents per episode). So presumably I can watch it for 10 cents. The rates might be tiered if you want commercials or don't want commercials. Newer programming might be charged different rates especially if it is brand new. The question is what will the consumer expect. |
| January 5th, 2013 at 7:34:39 PM permalink | |
| AZDuffman Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 135 Posts: 18210 |
Not the worst idea, though the price has to stay super low, $.05-.10 per episode. What I also see happening is everything going more and more micro. More indie. YouTube has some decent channels on various subjects. I can see it and a competitor or two letting people make indie shows and turn them into channels. A way would need to be found to better monetize them. No matter what people seem to be more and more willing to downscale and even pull the plug. Cable has already changed us from a nation where everybody saw the last M*A*S*H the or "The Day After" to one where you can watch only what interests you. The next logical step seems to me to be not forcing you to subsidize what does not interest you. Let me say buh-bye to OWN and ESPN while those who prefer "Honey Boo Boo" need not pay for "History." The President is a fink. |
| January 5th, 2013 at 9:01:03 PM permalink | |
| FarFromVegas Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 3 Posts: 121 |
And some of us watch 3 out of those 4! (Never watched OWN...) This space for rent |