Ala Carte Cable TV

There is a new buzzword surrounding the cable TV industry. It is ala carte pricing. I think this is a bad idea.

Ala carte pricing is a scheme to allow viewers to pick and choose (and pay for) only the channels they want to watch. Surveys have shown that a typical household normally watches about 13 of their cable choices with any regularity. Basic cable offers typically 65 to 80 channels. Ala carte pricing advocates claim their system would save an average household $5 to $10 per month.

To which I say...(wait for it)...AS FAR AS YOU KNOW!

Every time some "well meaning" government toady takes on a "good for consumers" issue it is time to padlock your wallets and vote the bastards out of office. These people do "studies" by taking bogus stats from the very PACs that are promoting the issue in exchange for "donations". When they say "good for consumers" what they mean is they can't see what real harm it can do.

What ala carte proponents wants us to buy is 13 channels at $30 instead of 80 channels at $40. So what if I don't watch all of the channels all of the time? For the extra $10 per month I have access to 67 more channels.

And don't think this isn't going to affect all of the other cable tier pricing. If the cable operators think of ala carte as thier basic (cheapest) service then they will nudge their pricing of their other tiers upward. They are businesses with bottom lines and profit margins to meet. They have to raise prices on other areas if some outside force makes them offer part of their services at a loss to their past bottom lines.

So, I think everytime someone starts tinkering with what should be a free market issue for the "good of the consumers" it is going to cost me more money.

Finally, let me conclude by saying that they could have named their "pick and choose" pricing scheme a little better. The quintessential use of the term "ala carte" (or items priced individually) is found in restaurants. In my experience ala carte pricing in restaurants always means expensive. That's why somebody came up with the blue plate special. Or, better yet, go to McDonalds and buy the items from a Value Meal individually (ala carte) and compare the cost to the Value Meal price.

Ala carte pricing is going to save consumers money? I don't think so.