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But will this effectively lower the price of pay tv? Common sense says yes. If I only pay for what I watch my bill will go down right? For example, if I only watch 8 cable TV stations and each is $4 my $80 cable bill should be reduced $48 right? Uh, not so fast.
How much do you pay for set-top box rentals and will the channels really be $4 each? The cable bundle you purchase now has like 100+ channels right? If you strip out the crap, your left with what maybe 20 good channels? That's debatable but let's say yes. Ok, so we get 20 good channels for $80 per month. Let's also say you pay $20 in set-top box rentals. So that's $60 you pay for those 20 good channels which works out to $4 per channel. Are you with me still?
So, we're at $4 for the channels you actually watch. Now, let's say you purchase 8 channels of the 20 good channels that you must currently take from a bundle. 8 channels by the way is pretty typical of what the average pay-tv viewer actually watches on a regular basis. So, let's also assume you only pay for what you watch which is 8 channels at $4 each or $32 in content and set-tops remain at $20. Ah-ha, our cable bill just went from $80 to $52. Thank you Senator McCain, you just saved me $28 per month! Uh, not so fast.
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It's kind of like going to the movie theater and buying snacks. Sure, you can spend $20 and buy the value pack which includes 2 drinks, tub of popcorn, and a candy which makes you feel ripped off. Or, you can pay a-la-carte and buy the normal size popcorn, split a large drink, and skip the candy so you can still feel ripped off. I predict this is what would happen with a-la-carte TV. The best thing you can do is sneak everything into the theater like so:
Buy these channels a-la-carte and watch them over your Internet connection where you already have access to Netflix, Hulu, and an over the air antenna. So, you don't need 8 cable channels more like 1-3. So your bill looks more like this:
Netflix - $7.99
Hulu - $7.99 (which is like your DVR)
Antenna - $0
3 cable TV stations over iTV - $24 (not available today)
Set-tops you don't need these with iTV - $0
Total - $39.98
Now you have a cable package killer. Three "must have" $8 pay TV channels and two iTV subscriptions at $8 each.
But, until it can be done over the top so viewers can bypass their cable company, our cable TV bills will continue to be overly expensive. It's the combination of a-la-cart pay TV and iTV that will truly bring down the cost for you and me.
hey very nice post with amazing information..thanks for sharing it...
ReplyDeleteset top box