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Backoffice & OSS
Cable A La Carte ‘Such a Bad Idea’
Industry Execs Make Case Against Individualized Programming
by Jim Barthold
A la carte video programming is “a bad thing” that would
stunt the development of new channels and programming
offerings, cable executives said during their annual NCTA
2006 National Show bash in Atlanta.
Despite being a big issue with consumers who dislike paying
for “tiers” of channels they never watch, and government
officials who want to serve their constituents’ needs, a la carte
programming – the ability to choose and pay for only those
programs you want – is “a bad idea not only for the business
but for consumers,” said Michael Willner, president-CEO of
Insight Communications during a keynote general session at
the conference in Atlanta. “It is a bad thing.”
“A la carte isn’t a great way to sell networks. it also isn’t a
great way to sell programming,” said Glenn Britt, president-
CEO of Time Warner Cable.
Mark Cuban, perhaps best known as the owner of the Dallas
Mavericks and president and chairman of HDNet, a high
definition programming service, used the Internet as “a
perfect example of how a la carte content does not work.
There are no hits on the ‘net. There’s no money that flows
there; there’s no involvement in content and when there’s no
investment in content everybody loses.”
While a la carte programming is a hot button with consumers
and legislators, the cable industry is also keeping a wary eye
on competition from telcos and other new players in the
broadband space and potential legislation that might help
those players get into the video entertainment space.
While Willner said he expects “some sort of legislation” that
would help telcos get national franchises rather than
appealing to every municipality for permission to offer video,
he said there is “some fundamental unfairness” to giving any
advantages to an industry whose “second largest company is
bigger than our entire industry.”
Cable, even with competition is still in the driver’s seat,
insisted Tom Rutledge, COO at Cablevision Systems, who
said the competition in Cablevision’s New York metro area
from Verizon’s FiOS service has been “a lot of pres releases.
It’s really not been an effective system to date.”
Even so, Rutledge said, there’s enough room for everyone.
“The cable marketplace is a lot bigger than people realize,”
Rutledge said.
Cable – or at least Cablevision and few of the other multiple
service operators -- is attacking the telcos’ bread and butter
not only with voice services with a plan to “sell to this whole
business marketplace,” said Rutledge, defining the market
as “all businesses, but actually the small business (which)
has not been a competitive area. With our fiber networks we
can compete anywhere.”
Those networks and the whole cable infrastructure are the
keys, the executives said, to cable’s continued success as
long as the industry is “not just enamored with technology but
understands what people want,” said Britt. “The consumer is
the key.”
And, though the consumer might want the ability to pick and
choose channels and fat forward through commercials with a
digital video recorder, Britt wasn’t necessarily that consumer-
friendly.
“I’m a consumer and if I can get everything in the world for
free, I like that,” he said. “That’s not the way the world
works,” he said, calling for a balance between consumer
needs and economics.
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