[mythtv-users] All clear QAMs gone in Portland, OR

Joseph Fry joe at thefrys.com
Tue Nov 5 16:31:58 UTC 2013


>> Simple... the same way a retailer can sell competing products...
>
> That analogy doesn't work.  Walmart can sell 10 brands of toaster, but
> it expects an individual customer to only buy one of them, not all of
> them.

True, but the analogy still works if you don't treat them as identical
products.  My local Kroger often offers 4 for $4 deals on 2-Liter
sodas, regardless of brand, saving about 40% off individual purchase
price.

>> they mark them up.
>
> In order to be able to mark them back down, offering 50% off or even
> less, then the initial markup would need to be very high.  The math
> just doesn't work out.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a 100%+ markup by the cable companies
on individual channel selections.  That's the premium you will pay for
picking just one or two channels.

I think your under the impression that they would be paying wholesale
prices that are much higher than they would be in reality.  For
example, I suspect that all but the most popular channels would cost
your cable company less than $1/subscriber.  These networks are funded
almost entirely by advertising, so they are more interested in keeping
it cheap to boost the number of subscribers to improve advertising
revenue.

Additionally, your assuming that the network operators wouldn't offer
incentives or that the markup wouldn't be substantial.   Almost every
channel is owned by one of 5 media conglomerates... who can easily
offer inceentives to package their products together in the hope that
subscribers would purchase several of their channels in lieu of
getting a competitor's channels:
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/07/07/who-owns-what-on-television/#!nLHI9

So they might sell a Viacom kids pack including 4 Nick channels +
Noggin for far less than it would cost to get just Nick and Disney
(since they are competing channels and would have no incentives
attached).  This is why the network providers would like ala-carte...
forcing someone on a budget to choose between competitors will allow
them to lock you in to their products; if your kid has to have Disney,
and they have an incentive to ESPN (another disney product) at a
discount, or you get Fox Sports at full price, you will choose ESPN as
your sports channel.


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