The A La Carte Cable TV Revolution – For all the talk about advancements in technology and innovation, I’m left to wonder why every American isn’t able to purchase cable subscription plans A La Carte menu-style. It baffles me that in this day and age, we can’t subscribe to only the cable channels we wish to subscribe to.
A La Carte Cable TV Revolution
WOW! cable has unceremoniously dumped yet another of my favorite channels – Game Show Network (GSN). I’d gladly give back 300 channels of what I don’t watch to get my GSN back. It irks me as a consumer that I have absolutely no say in the matter.
I know we’re a slave to cable and satellite agendas in the same way we’re slaves to ridiculous smartphone plans. I’m also well-aware that the myriad of sports channels (and rights fees for them) dictate the high cost of cable and satellite packages. That said, it’s time for a a la carte cable tv revolution.
Somewhere, some lawmaker has to free us from the binds from how ridiculous cable and satellite television plans have become and give us the freedom of choice.
Imagine sitting down at a restaurant and having the wait staff bring you every single item on the menu and charging you for them. That’s what cable TV has become.
I understand that my cable bill wouldn’t necessarily be reduced by 70% if I were to lop off the 70% of the channels I deem useless to me, but… I should at least have some say in the matter.
We should be able to order cable channels as menu items the same exact way we order from a menu at a restaurant – a la carte. Why can’t we as consumers choose what we want? No one needs (or has time) for 200 plus channels. Why must we pay for all of them when we only want 20-60. Think of a chinese restaurant menu… choose 2 from column A, 1 from column B and 1 from column C.
Here’s how my a la carte cable tv dream scenario would work… You call (or logon) to your chosen cable or satellite provider and choose which cable channels from the 600 plus channel menu you wish to receive monthly. Of course, you can add or subtract channels at will depending on your interests (and budgets). Charge a little more for the popular ones and charge a little less for the ones no one cares about much (like GSN). That’s it! Sounds simple, right? Because it is simple! Give me my basic cable with the local channels (2, 4, 7, UPN, MyTV20 + public access & mandatory government channels). I’d imagine I’d purchase 20-35 more on a monthly basis (2-3 sports channels, 2-3 music channels, 2-3 news channels, 5-8 lifestyle channels, 1 kids channel and maybe a movie channel – you get the picture). The rest could go away forever and I’d never care.
It isn’t 1981 anymore. The technology is there. Let us pick the 20-60 channels we wish to pay for each month survive and let the channels we don’t wish to watch fall away. Let the a la carte cable tv revolution begin.
