What happens next on your favorite sitcom/reality show/talk show may be something you cannot ever depend on, but regularly dealing with bigger bills for the cable TV service that will put that show on your screen, you can. The very cornerstone of the cable TV business model has always been making the customer subsidize the channels he couldn't care less about, when he pays for the channels he could care less about.
First day of the year, News Corporation, the company that owns all the Fox channels, was doing its best to add some New Year cheer, by racking up subscriber fees for all of their channels. And by the way, the channels they have in mind are only going to cost you on cable TV. On regular TV, they are free. One reason that they are doing this, is that they don't want to feel that they are too dependent on advertising revenue to stay afloat. They want to only be dependent on subscriber fees. But of course, if I know anything about them, they're probably going to end up making money both ways. Other production companies are licking their chops at this. They feel that they certainly deserve a share of all the cable bills that 100 million cable TV homes in the country pay. Even cable-only channels that come with hit shows like SpongeBob SquarePants, are rooting around for a way to get in on the action.
To the regular subscriber, there is just no sign on the surface, of all the turmoil and wrangling that goes on behind the scenes to get this business to be a little more profitable. Not until the bill actually goes up. The broadcasters have always had trouble accepting how cable TV can charge subscribers and advertisers both the same time. What with the content providers trying every trick to change the game too, the broadcasters are trying to see what they can do to add to your burden themselves. And all this could not come at a worse time for the business; TV is already losing out to free (and often pirated) stuff on the Internet.
On average, each bill-paying person pays about $75 a month. CBS and News Corporation just want a dollar out of that each month each. Disney and ABC are just testing the waters themselves too. What with Comcast, the cable TV provider buying up NBC Universal, they're just going to be in a better position to charges of the more. The Internet is certainly changing the game everywhere with free content all around; with the cable TV providers actually owning the channels now, they're certainly going to have a hard time watching their customers steal their shows on the very cable broadband connection they provide.
Washington wants to make cable TV channels available la carte. But they find it difficult to break the hold cable TV providers have on their freedom to do it. So they're just looking to the Internet to provide an alternative, and make it impossible for the cable TV providers or the content providers to argue. They want things to work out like it did with music. At one time, you had to buy the whole album to get one song. It's no longer so. They hope that people can get used to not being taken advantage of experiencing freedom on the Internet, and then work up a little bit of backbone, to fight for their rights with the cable TV providers. Wonder how long that will take.
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