Just some quick news bits for today...
- FCC approves the Apple iPhone... she's coming folks, is the industry ready? [AppleInsider]
- FCC Chief backs a la carte at cable industry - "Fundamentally, I support consumers’ ability to pick and choose the products they want," said FCC chairman Kevin Martin [Reclaim the Media]
- Opie taking suspension hard? Nah. Taking nap [New York Daily News]
- Retirement Living program knocked from Sirius Satellite Radio [Baltimore Business Journal]
- Gibson forced to apologize for airing joke about "ejaculating in a woman's eye" [Think Progress]
A la carte pricing would be great for consumers but it will never happen unless the government requires it. Funny how the Kyle McSlarrow says that he would support it if the marketplace called for it. It already does.
Comcast raised their prices in January because they needed it to better the company but yet 1st quarter profits rose 80%. Well at least I have a choice with high speed internet.
Another Thought: Someone has to pay for that pretty new building they're building in Center City, Philadelphia. Not to mention their next acquisition. They're certainly not going to (gasp!) pay "out of pocket" with previous profits.
Now, if only I had the ability to force a pay raise from my employer when I move to my next house, the way Comcast can force a rate hike on me. Aren't more subscribers more conductive to lowering rates since Comcast can "buy in greater bulk" from various media outlets? Nah... that would be actual capitalism instead of monopoly.
Bitter? Yes. I'd drop Comcast in a minute for satellite if it weren't for the fact Comcast bought enough Congressmen to make it legal to not have to provide Philadelphia sports programming to 3rd party providers. Yes, Verizon's new service will have it, but they won't be offering it where I live for years.
Comcast can't really get a bulk discount from programming, since most of the contracts specify that they pay a specified amount per subscriber per month to ESPN (depending on when the Comcast/ESPN deal was last redone, probably somewhere between $2-$3 a month on your bill... if you're getting ESPNEWS and ESPN-U, it's probably even more), Fox News, etc.
That's different, of course, from satellite radio, where, save for the music royalties, most of the content cost is prix fixe (with possible rev-share from advertising). Exceptions include Fox News (IIRC from that controversy last year, Sirius and XM are each paying c.20 cents per month per subscriber).
However, a la carte won't work for other reasons. As it is, you've displayed a willingness to pay $12.95 for the _x_ channels you actually listen to (mainly, in my case, Howard 100/101, Sports 125 (effectively the Sirius Soccer Channel), and BuzzSaw). Most of the other channels are "who gives a shit" as far as I'm concerned.
OMFG John Gibson is the biggest hypocrite on God's green earth - he pretty much spent his ENTIRE radio show on Friday (Fox News Talk, XM) railing against O&A and how they should be responsible for what their guests put out over the air - thus they should have been fired for not controlling the homeless man and letting the Condoleeza comments be broadcast.
Well where's your resignation, Gibby? We're all waiting you self-serving douche.
i remember years ago before the pizza dishes where you live out in the country you got big dishes that set in the back yard.and the sat companys would do al a carte
and it was great because you could pick and choose
now i live in town where there is cable and i would love to see al-a carte.