What's Making Cable Rates Jump So High?
from the behind-the-scenes-fighting dept
Just what we need to see - a bunch of companies trying to charge each other more money, leading to consumers getting bigger bills all the time. There have been plenty of stories pointing out that cable TV rates seem to be going up noticeably on a yearly basis. Usually, the cable companies blame it on the cable channels charging them more to carry them - and the worst culprits appear to be the sports channels who know they can get away with charging higher and higher rates, because some fans simply can't do without their ESPN. Of course, at some point, the whole mess simply becomes too expensive for too many people, and they start to look for alternatives. You would hope that competition would help drive the prices down, but since each of the various sports is basically a monopoly, they charge high rates for the programming, and the fans want access to that programming. The end result, though, could be that the casual fan gets driven out of the market - which is something all of the major sports will eventually regret.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Here is how cable pricing actually works
Their existence was explained this way. Let's say you are a mayor or power alderman in a city and you hava a child who is so stupid, McDonald's won't even hire them.
What do you do? You get them a job a the cable company. And what do you do when the cable company comes and says they need higher rates? You grant them the increase, no matter how bad the data is.
So, there is never any push back from cities, which means there is no push back from cable companies to cable channels.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Satellite
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Satellite
1) You are happy watching all of your television in one room, as opposed to having a large family who needs access on 4 or more televisions. Satellite costs an additional $5 per receiver after the first, so 4 TVs automatically adds another $15 to your bill - not so for cable.
2) You aren't using cable modem as your broadband provider. Use a cable modem and satellite for TV - you pay $50 per month for cable modem. Use cable modem and cable for your TV - you pay $40 per month.
Just those two things along save me $25 per month vs being with satellite.
When I had satellite (DishNetwork) with America's Top 150 package on 4 TVs it was over $110 per month + $50 for cable modem.
By switching to digital cable television (with analog cable on the three bedroom TVs) my total cable bill is now $112 and that includes my cable modem.
The only drawback was that I lost the DVR capabilities of the primary satellite receiver, but my cable company is implenting DVR technology in '04 so I hopefully won't have to do without for too long.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Satellite
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Satellite
Also, if you MUST have your cable modem, you'll find that you already have basic cable throughout your house just by splitting off from your cable modem (for free!). Before believing the crap that cable companies spread, remember that you can research it yourself and find the truth.
Ever hear of Voom Satellite? That's right - it's a cable company's new satellite offering. If they can't beat us, I guess they'll join us.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Satellite
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Satellite
I'll bet that 10-15 local stations are free anyway.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
premium channels
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: premium channels
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Interesting in the face of TVIP
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Interesting in the face of TVIP
I'm rooting for it since I don't watch sports and only watch about 10 stations anyway, not including the premium channels which are al la carte already.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
COX and ESPN have been going at it for a while
See: http://www.makethemplayfair.com/
But, ESPN fought back with their own website:
http://msn.espn.go.com/gen/espncablestanceindex.html
I really like the open letter to their fans:
http://msn.espn.go.com/gen/alettertoourfans.html
Assuming half that stuff is true, I tend to believe the cable companies are just out to make a few more bucks, and are just trying to find a scapegoat to take the blame. Especially when DTV hasn't gone up in ages, and the cable companies keep loosing customers to satellite.
I very seriously doubt the problem is with higher programming costs. It's all just smoke and mirors.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: COX and ESPN have been going at it for a while
1997 $19.95
1999 $24.99
note sure about the steps between 1999 and 2002
2002 $33.99
2004 $36.99
So, YOU must be 4 years old if you concider 2 years "ages".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
cable why so high
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Its all a monoploy and we are gettin screwed!
C-band was by far the cheapest since you could choose any choice of channels or packages and program providers and had tons of free channels, but we all cant have an 8 foot dish in our yards...
Basic cable is 48.00..
Basic 'digital cable' is about 63.00..
'Digital everything' is about 93.00..
Cable internet 45.00..
Modem rental 3.00
Each additional cable box 6.95
My total bill 127.00
I have service interruptions that no one can resolve (7 techs in the past 10 months)
I only watch 63 of the channels and seldom use the 'on demand'. I believe you should have the ability to choose what you want in your cable line up and pay for what you watch..
I know for fact that some of the 'digital' channels aren't all digital and that they could save some subscribers rental fees on the extra cable boxes by adding channel modulators at the head end and putting some channels into the higher analog band since most 'cable ready' televisions have the ability to have over 125 channels..
I paid 45.00 for basic DirectTv but I didnt get locals or some of the channels I liked to watch because it was in a different 'tier' so therefore just for me to watch 1 channel I had to pay for others I didn't watch or care for..
Dish Network basic 180 package with locals 55.00, seems fair to me cause I got what I wanted..
I figured with DirectTv and Dish Network now all I need is high speed internet.
Cable internet without video service is 55.00..
DSL through the phone company is 42.00 along with basic phone service at 30.00 which I don't need a land line phone since I use a mobile.
As for reliability of all of the above, small dishes will go out in heavy rain or will tile or pixel up during moderate rain. Try using a larger dish if possible, when I had c-band I never lost signal and could still have a digital picture with very little tiling.. I have seen tiling and pixels with cable when a heavy storm comes through the area. If cable does go out its usually due to a head end issue or an actual break in the communication lines including power failure..
Any way you choose, whoever you choose, you still pay about the same every month or more.. Its all a monopoly because someone is getting rich off of us and we are paying more and more for something we aren't getting but something we expect..
Be glad you have the choice you have now because some of you may have grown up having only 3 maybe 4 over the air channels and after midnight all the channels went off the air, thats scary to a child waking up at 1am..
I was lucky to have cable in the 80's and to have 28 channels was pure bliss to a child back then..
Thanks for letting me vent..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]