Pick and pay TV may come to the "free" world

[dumpthemonarchy]

It is about time.

A man in the USA has filed a suit claiming cable companies are preventing choice by consumers because of a web of contracts, deals, and gov't reguations that prevent consumers from buying the channels they want. Buying TV channels should be like shopping, you should be able to buy what you want, not have all the products "bundled". The public is a captive audience, getting guaranteed profits from the gov't. We are being overcharged and underserved.

It is like Elvis Presley's manager, Colonel Parker is running the show, telling the rubes how the business is run.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070920/ap_on_hi_te/cable_tv_lawsuit;_ylt=AmmraN2UOMjU_x1oFkT8DDsjtBAF

 

[YoungJoonKim]

I can just see collapse in number of channels

 

[eh1eh]

Pick and pay would be refreshing. All they have to do is put on a minimun service fee for the first 30 or 40 channels then have a reasonable fee per after that, they'd probably make more. I know there are many channels I don't get cuz they're in a package where I only want 3 of 6. There are many of their bundles like that so in the end I would probably subscribe to more channels in the end. But that wouldn't be so democratic as no one would order the channels that are crap so the 50 people that want it couldn't have it due to low subsciption. In our society we tend to even the odds and spread it around. Kind of a thing we are more likely to do here than in the USA. Like it you break your arm it doesn't cost you $9000.00 cuz everybody kicked in and you can still afford your mortgage and won't get sued by a hospital. Oops, off topic, too bad.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

See, there's this thing called globalization. We are restricted to the channels we can get in our own country, forget about getting TV stations from other countries. What about some "electronic globalization"? Getting TV stations from any country in the world?

This is technically possible, but not yet legally because lawyers run the world. Here I am in Korea and I am unable to watch the hockey games I want. I get one game per week, on Saturday morning at 8:00 am. A little early.

Gov't regulators need to bust this logjam/monopoly. Give local/national stations the first 10-20 channels then let consumers pick and pay what we want from anywhere in the world.