A la Carte

How much do you pay for cable service? Per month? Per year? Does it feel like you're being robbed by your own cable provider? According to USA Today, cable prices continue to rise between 2-6% every year. People everywhere are throwing more and more money away in cable bills. This is an issue that affects everyone who watches television or pays for cable programming. Cable prices continue rising and the suggestion of pay-per-channel pricing still hasn't gone into effect.

The problems with cable pricing have a lot to do with the lack of an "a la carte" package option. A la carte pricing would allow subscribers to pay for only the channels they want, instead of being reduced to selecting from large bundles. The cable bundles currently offered keep getting larger and larger. So, the subscribers are forced to pay for hundreds of channels that they may or may not even watch. According to the FCC, the average cable viewer only watches 17 channels, so why should the consumers pay for 1000 or more? It is also stated by the FCC that a la carte cable would save subscribers between 3-13% on their cable bills. So, if a person paid 100$ a month on their cable bill, they would save 156$ annually using a la carte cable. A la carte cable also gives people the ability to not pay for those channels that they consider inappropriate or uninteresting; this would increase standards for programming and competition for viewers and pricing.

Why don't cable companies offer a la carte cable? The American Cable Association says that the sole reason its members don't offer a la carte programming is that media conglomerates like Disney and Fox flat out deny the option at all. One argument is, which has little or no evidence to support it, that a la carte pricing would bring down profits from subscription fees and ad revenue.

In the 1940s movie theaters couldn't buy movies individually, they had to purchase them in packages of movies. This gave the theaters less say in what movies were shown and resulted in government regulation. This was called "block booking" and is very similar to the way that cable packages are set up today. The success that this movement had gives reason to believe that government regulation of cable packages could end up having a positive impact as well.

The bottom line is that the government needs to step in and regulate a la carte cable. If a la carte cable was available customers could not only save money, but they could support programming they love, and encourage competition among networks and programming.