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Push For FCC Mandate Over Cable Could Bring Back A La Carte Debate
from the forcing-the-issue dept
While very few people expect the effort to have the FCC regulate cable and satellite services to get very far, bringing up the issue may bring back to life a different debate: whether pay-TV providers should be forced to offer a la carte programming. The reasoning is that if there was a la carte programming, then people could easily pick and choose the channels that were less likely to offend them. Some of the people complaining about "indecency" on pay TV are mainly complaining that to get some channels they want, they have to get others that they find problematic. It's an issue that comes up often enough -- but never seems to go very far. Perhaps that's because studies have shown that a la carte programming would be much more expensive, as the technology, marketing and support issues needed to manage it would drive up costs for providers.
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Higher costs?
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A la carte will NOT work for the cable industry
What will make A la carte channels succeed is the "long tail" effect, where -- as long as channels can keep their costs reasonable -- they can all find enough viewers worldwide to make their existence worth while.
It's the WEB that provides a large enough audience for the long tail to work! So A la carte broadcasting will eventually (maybe within five to eight years) be much more cost-effective on the web than on cable.
If there ever was a window of opportunity for A la carte on cable, that window is about to close.
- precision blogger
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