This
week I want to indulge in a detour from podcasting but still within media as a
field. A few years ago, as part of a graduate class on innovation in media
business models, I presented a proposal for a la carte cable television
packages that aimed to split the difference between consumers’ interest and the
interests of the cable companies.
The
plan was to offer packages of 25, 50, 75 or 100 channels – but not pre-selected
by the provider. Consumers could assemble a custom list of channels. The
intention of this plan was to slow down “cord cutting” (customers dropping
cable in favor of online streaming video services and sources), and keep
customers on board by offering greater choice in programming, within certain
price points. The plan wouldn’t go as far as offering single channel choices
for $1, $2 or $5 a month (depending on the popularity of the channel) but
instead require the customer to pay at least $25 a month (or some price point
close to that) for 25 channels, to guarantee some level of income for the
provider in return for services.
To
date, I haven’t seen or heard of any cable provider offer anything like this.
The only attempt to retain or recover lost customers I’ve seen is a Time Warner
Cable offering lost customers a streaming service for basic broadcast channels
through a Roku box at no more than one tenth of the price of typical cable box
service. But this doesn’t extend to or include any basic cable level channels,
except perhaps C-SPAN, because that’s a public service on some level.
The
Roku box or Google’s Chromecast could be ways for cable companies to offer the
kind of a la carte plan I proposed in the course. Several basic cable networks,
on their own, already offer their programming as apps on Roku boxes and
smartphones, but these are predicated on already having a cable subscription
being used at home. HBO and Showtime, as premium channels, have now made
themselves available without a cable subscription, but the basic cable channels
are dependent on the carriage fees, so it may take them a lot longer to go
independent. Cord cutting apparently hasn’t yet hit enough of a tipping point
to make them follow HBO’s lead.
The
industrial interests of the cable industry remain too strong. They’re more
entrenched and dug in than something like Howl, covered last week and earlier in entries of this blog, the
podcast aggregator that is battling to succeed with a collected programming
offering that in some ways is like a cable TV package with varied channels – if
you consider the audience for more serious Slate or NPR style audio fare
completely removed from the audience for stand-up comedy.
The
podcasting medium doesn’t seem ripe or varied enough yet to make a paid a la
carte model realistic. But that model is still one that could become necessary
for the cable industry once it can no longer rely on inconsistent strategies
used by different cable channels – USA, FX and others do allow cable customers
to view their programs through apps on both mobile devices and the Roku box,
while TBS and others only offer smartphone apps that are purposely do not offer
the ability to transmit through a Chromecast device to traditional home flat
screen TVs. Cord cutters might not be bothered to pick up on channels whose
online versions are not as easy to access.
Podcast of the
Week
I
had meant to do this a few weeks back already, but I hope to give a listening
recommendation with each blog post, based on what I've enjoyed most in the past
week. For the first one, go check out the iTunes podcast versions of Opie Radio
from January 7 and 8, where Opie, Jim Norton and a few other comics dissect the
Netflix documentary series "Making A Murderer," in their own special
way.
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