Cable TV's Excuse For No Ala Carte Channels Is A Farce

We're told we can't just subscribe to only the cable TV channels we actually want because we would only choose channels, and all of the other channels that fewer viewers watch would go out of business.

That reasoning is a farce.

No other industry is allowed to behave like that. We don't have to subscribe to 87 magazines we'll never read just to get the one car magazine we want to read. We don't have to buy 20 different frozen foods just to get the one pizza we want. Nobody forces me to buy 12 pairs of shoes just to get the one I actually want.

Premium cable channels still offer free preview weekends to allow viewers to sample what they offer and decide if they want to subscribe. That should be the business model of all television networks.

Businesses succeed or fail based on their own merits, not some b.s. forced on us with the sole purpose of making and keeping huge conglomerates rich. If a TV network can't stay in business because they don't offer anything people want to watch, it's not our responsibility to pay them anyway. If a person does not watch sports, they shouldn't have to pay for 12 different sports channels in their cable package. The same goes for sports fans who will never watch TLC, NatGeo, Smithsonian, and other informational networks but have to shell out monthly for them anyway.

The cable companies argue that if they were forced to offer ala carte subscriptions, that it would end up costing the consumer more money. Not true.

"The average cable customer watches only 12 to 15 channels on a regular bases, but cable companies bundle 50 to 75 channels in the expanded basic package, and upward of 200 in digital cable packages." (source)

Even if the price passed down to consumers for each individual TV channel tripled or quadrupled, it would still be less expensive to pay for only the 12-15 channels the average viewer watches instead of a huge bundle. The average cable TV channel charge cable companies .50 - $1.00 per viewer. A handful of channels charge more than $1.00 per viewer, for example, ESPN charges an average of $4.69 per viewer for their main channel alone. However, many channels charge nothing or a very small fee of far less than .50 per viewer. Even if the cable companies averaged that out to charging viewers $2-3 per channel, and even charging more for ESPN to over actual costs, it would still be cheaper for 99 percent of viewers to purchase channels ala carte.

It's also not the American people's responsibility to subsidize the destruction of forests and printing and delivery of piles of junk mail just so postal workers and the direct mail industries can survive.

If nobody wants a product, the company offering it should adapt or go out of business, period. That's how it is in the real world, except the world of cable television.