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Originally Posted by brandon11983
I believe I can answer this question quickly and concisely. The cable companies won't let you do a la carte programming because they won't make any money like that. What moron wouldn't realize that it would be a great thing for consumers to be able to pick and choose their programming? But you must understand that cable companies aren't in the business for the consumers, but rather to make money off them. If you could just pick and choose from the drivel available, you could pay drastically less per month, and therefore less in the cable co's pocket. I have over 120 channels available to me, but I watch (literally) less than 10 of them. Those 10 channels have the stuff on that I want to watch, and the channels are scattered throughout the various programming packages.
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How do you figure that? The cable companies would just charge the most for the most popular channels and give you the less watched one's for cheap (In actuality, isn't this what they do now).
You: Ok, I just want my local news, ESPN, and the Outdoor Life Network.
Comcast: That will be $34.78.
You: How much if I get the other 37 channels?
Comcast: That will be $42.19.
You: OK, OK, just ESPN.
Comcast: That will be the minimum $29.95.
You: That's highway robbery.
Comcast: Tuff
The real issue I think is advertisers. One of the real advantages to advertising on cable as opposed to local broadcast stations is the ability to target your customers. If I was advertising my product I would want to be able to 'rifle shot' my message. This is what cable does well. This is why advertisers pay what they do. When I wanted to advertise on ESPN only, the sales guy told me 'We can't do that'.. I said 'Why not'. He says cause that is what everybody wants. ESPN would be nothing but commercials and the other channels would have no commercials.
Anyway, this is a complex issue but it is mainly a business decision.