Verizon Breaks Pay-TV Bundle As Competition Mounts

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It looks as though Verizon is finally starting to listen to its customers when it comes to cable bundles. Could cable companies finally be on the verge of true à la carte TV packages?

Verizon (VZ) is breaking the TV Cable Bundle as competition mounts and cable cutters grow. A new FIOS TV package from Verizon lets customers pick groups of channels they want to watch. This, Verizon says, will give customers flexibility to purchase only certain groups of channels they want to watch. This is the latest sign of how Pay TV providers are adapting to stepped up competition and the growing number of "cord cutters".
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Not yet there, but it's a start. Hopefully we'll start seeing this with other cable companies.

The $30 increase COX hit me with from last year was just to much.

Switched my phone service to an IP phone that only charges tax ($3.90/month), and then called and threatened to drop the cable TV service too. They cut me a deal for the next year, so hopefully by next year there will be some more choices. Figure it will take almost 8 months to pay off the new hardware, but at least the money isn't going to my over priced cable company.
 
$55 a month for 2 "channel packages"? No thank you. That's part of the reason peopl are cutting the cord. Paying for channels that they don't watch is not appealing. Especially @ those prices! Holy crap!
 
It made sense up until the price. The plan with more channels is cheaper. They are coming out with some double play plans that don't sound too bad. Might end up being cheaper than Comcast for me.
 
I have TW - been using them for my internet provider for the last 5-6 years. I've also not had cable service for the entire period - I cut the cord a long time ago and have been using Netflix, OTA channels, Hulu, Plex, etc.
Last month, TW sends a letter hiking my rates by about 30%. I also received another offer from another cable/internet provider for the same service AND cable channels cheaper than TW. So, I called up and started negotiating with TW.
I was able to get the price down substantially - however, I had to bundle cable to get the price. I now have what I assume is basic cable. I didn't really want it, but it was cheaper to get it than skip it.
My observations:
-Picture quality SUCKS. OTA is much better (1080i vs 480p+compression for cable)
-Dear lord, are there more commercials now? I don't watch many shows even with OTA, so when I started using some of the cable channels, I was shocked how many commercials are crammed in.
-My kids hate cable. They grew up without it and primarily use Netflix for shows they watch. They are confused by broadcast schedules (as opposed to on demand) and HATE commercials. It cracks me up.
 
steakman1971 said:
...however, I had to bundle cable to get the price. I now have what I assume is basic cable. I didn't really want it, but it was cheaper to get it than skip it.
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Yes, they are doing this now to inflate their TV subscriber numbers. I'd imagine it would be a much more grim situation without them doing this. Beware, the rate usually jumps after the first year though.
 
People need to understand that the cable companies have two things preventing them from a la carte. The first is old analog technology. With say 60 analog channels it would be impossible to provide a la carte as they would need a filter for each channel. If you wanted say 10 channels of those 60 that would be 50 filters they would have to put on. That is way to cumbersome. This is changing though. Many mso's are finally getting rid of analog tv service as it is way too bulky. Providing analog can take anywhere from 40 to 50 percent of the spectrum's bandwidth. Once a mso goes all digital it would be possible to offer a la carte but only if every device was addressable. This means you would have to pay either for a full cable box, a cable card device, or one of the new mini boxes for each tv. Providing clear qam channels would go right back to the same problem as a la carte and would actually be worse because several channels would share the same frequency.

The second roadblock to a la carte is the broadcasters. For all the channels that are distributed there are only a few broadcasting companies. Look at Disney. They hold the Disney channels, Espn, ABC channels, History channel, A&E channels and Lifetime channels. When they negotiate their contract with an MSO they package ALL those channels and insist that all those channels are included. This is true with all the channels that are offered on Cable, Dish and DirecTv. At this point the MSO can not unbundle those channels as they are under contract.

Unfortunately, until either the FCC or Congress breaks up those broadcasters, a la carte will not happen. Even if technology doesn't present a roadblock, these broadcasting company's surely will.
 
Tanis143 said:
People need to understand that the cable companies have two things preventing them from a la carte. The first is old analog technology. With say 60 analog channels it would be impossible to provide a la carte as they would need a filter for each channel. If you wanted say 10 channels of those 60 that would be 50 filters they would have to put on. That is way to cumbersome. This is changing though. Many mso's are finally getting rid of analog tv service as it is way too bulky. Providing analog can take anywhere from 40 to 50 percent of the spectrum's bandwidth. Once a mso goes all digital it would be possible to offer a la carte but only if every device was addressable. This means you would have to pay either for a full cable box, a cable card device, or one of the new mini boxes for each tv. Providing clear qam channels would go right back to the same problem as a la carte and would actually be worse because several channels would share the same frequency.

The second roadblock to a la carte is the broadcasters. For all the channels that are distributed there are only a few broadcasting companies. Look at Disney. They hold the Disney channels, Espn, ABC channels, History channel, A&E channels and Lifetime channels. When they negotiate their contract with an MSO they package ALL those channels and insist that all those channels are included. This is true with all the channels that are offered on Cable, Dish and DirecTv. At this point the MSO can not unbundle those channels as they are under contract.

Unfortunately, until either the FCC or Congress breaks up those broadcasters, a la carte will not happen. Even if technology doesn't present a roadblock, these broadcasting company's surely will.
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Or enough people who cut the cord due to it. Hard for them to make those profits if people are spending their money elsewhere. Considering the cable companies have been taking advantage of our wallets for the longest times, I don't mind seeing them hurt, and possibly have to sell some of their stuff. Or eventually cave in pricing.

I cut the cord and won't go back
 
Cable companies dragged kicking and screaming =/= listening to customers
 
Tanis143 said:
People need to understand that the cable companies have two things preventing them from a la carte. The first is old analog technology. With say 60 analog channels it would be impossible to provide a la carte as they would need a filter for each channel. If you wanted say 10 channels of those 60 that would be 50 filters they would have to put on. That is way to cumbersome. This is changing though. Many mso's are finally getting rid of analog tv service as it is way too bulky. Providing analog can take anywhere from 40 to 50 percent of the spectrum's bandwidth. Once a mso goes all digital it would be possible to offer a la carte but only if every device was addressable. This means you would have to pay either for a full cable box, a cable card device, or one of the new mini boxes for each tv. Providing clear qam channels would go right back to the same problem as a la carte and would actually be worse because several channels would share the same frequency.

The second roadblock to a la carte is the broadcasters. For all the channels that are distributed there are only a few broadcasting companies. Look at Disney. They hold the Disney channels, Espn, ABC channels, History channel, A&E channels and Lifetime channels. When they negotiate their contract with an MSO they package ALL those channels and insist that all those channels are included. This is true with all the channels that are offered on Cable, Dish and DirecTv. At this point the MSO can not unbundle those channels as they are under contract.

Unfortunately, until either the FCC or Congress breaks up those broadcasters, a la carte will not happen. Even if technology doesn't present a roadblock, these broadcasting company's surely will.
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The analog issue is simple. Just limit analog/open qam channels to the most basic service (i.e. local channels and other channels available for free or very little cost) Everything else, including the "packages" would need a cable box or card.

The biggest problem is the broadcasters. The FCC or Congress needs to either break up these semi-monopolies or make it illegal for them to force bundling on the cable companies or have contacts that force the cable companies to provide the channel to every customer.
Once the channels are un-bundled at the broadcaster side, then we should see more options available.
 
I tend to think the cable companies are soon to be dinosaurs and extinct. Netflix and streaming video like that are the future. Dish's Sling TV is a nice addition at $20/month for ESPN and some channels the wife likes to watch so things like that are what people will be watching more in the future I believe.

As long as OTA channels are free and Netflix is $8/month and we've got Amazon streaming to rent new release movies on, I don't see any reason to go back to cable. Sports was the only reason but with Sling TV, that's now been taken care of. Especially during college football when I can get the SEC channel for $5 extra a month then cancel it after the season.
 
Meh, I looked into this, and the devils in the details.

These "skinny" bundles include just as much junk as the old bundles and the base channels include garbage such as spanish channels etc.

I already pay $54.99 for the "preferred hd" package which is one step up from the base package. No way in combining these new "skinny" bundles can I get what I want for less than I am paying today.

I still wind up watching a handful of the channels when I am paying for hundreds of them.

I won't be happy until I can pick individual channels.

But really, that is just a step on a way to retiring scheduled TV once and for all, and going to the "stream what you want when you want it independent of channels" model, which is really the only acceptable final outcome.
 
I didn't really mind the cost; I compared it to how much I used to spend going out on the town in NYC each night. Compared to that, the cable cost was cheap indeed. However, Comcast's service sucked; constant internet interruptions, cable tv channels 'this channel will be available soon' messages whenever I wanted to watch something, missed phone calls, it was just terrible. Sure, Verizen is expensive, but right now, everything works, and that's what I want. It only cost me a couple of hours of pay per month to pay the bill. Compared to my auto expenses and housing, it's a pittance.
 
I saw these a while ago as my FiOS contract needs renewing next month. Took about 5 minutes to see that they were far from worth it. I am glad to see it "start" but it has a long way to go. It seems that right now they are using them more to push people onto the other packages.

I dont watch probably 90% of the channels I have lol. Hopefully they have a good offer soon, their last few have not been worth it at all (other than the internet speed boost).
 
these providers are basically bound by the networks and forced to pay, and do whatever they are told (or have certain stations revoked). case in point espn/disney has just objected by verizon's attempt to try to unbundle certain channels.
 
I bet they will take the most popular channels and split them into different groups, such that you would still need to subscribe to ALL the groups in order to get the channels you actually want.
 
A lot of shitty cable channels are about to go the way of the Dodo.

With bundling, there is currently an ecosystem of hundreds of channels, with unbundling, you'll see a 2-5 year long shift to dozens of channels as the vast majority of the channels go out of business. If television becomes an "Opt-In" model getting just x subscribers isn't going to pay the overhead for the channel to operate at any realistic price subscribers are willing to pay. The break-even point will be a severe cut off, and eventually most channels will succumb to the math and go out of business.

The downstream effects of that, however, are not the loss of the channels, but the massive loss of content production by all those channels. When a show is made, that money circulates through hollywood paying a hundred people directly as part of the show's staff -- as seen in the credits.

Link
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Gavv said:
Or enough people who cut the cord due to it. Hard for them to make those profits if people are spending their money elsewhere. Considering the cable companies have been taking advantage of our wallets for the longest times, I don't mind seeing them hurt, and possibly have to sell some of their stuff. Or eventually cave in pricing.

I cut the cord and won't go back
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You still don't get it. Its not the cable companies that is the major road block, its the broadcasters. They force the cable (and satellite) companies to bundle these channels together. Again, the old roadblock was analog tv making it too cumbersome to provide a la carte, but going all digital would solve that. The second, and biggest problem is the broadcasters, something the MSO's have no real control over. Sure they could drop a broadcaster and lose 1-2 major channels and 8-12 crappy channels, but that strategy is a losing one unless ALL the MSO's follow suite.
 
Tanis143 said:
You still don't get it. Its not the cable companies that is the major road block, its the broadcasters. They force the cable (and satellite) companies to bundle these channels together. Again, the old roadblock was analog tv making it too cumbersome to provide a la carte, but going all digital would solve that. The second, and biggest problem is the broadcasters, something the MSO's have no real control over. Sure they could drop a broadcaster and lose 1-2 major channels and 8-12 crappy channels, but that strategy is a losing one unless ALL the MSO's follow suite.
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Well, the broadcasters will be similarly hurt as end users move away from traditional TV service, so one might think eventually they might be persuaded to change their tune as well.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041558306 said:
Well, the broadcasters will be similarly hurt as end users move away from traditional TV service, so one might think eventually they might be persuaded to change their tune as well.
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Except the traditional broadcasters are already creating their own portals for consumption ... networks don't mind cord cutters as long as you pay them to access their content ... also, even the broadcasters only control their shows while they are being aired new ... most of the shows are created by the same studios that make moves and they retain all the ownership of their content for syndication and online distribution of catalog material ... the main television broadcasters also still enjoy a lot of protection from the government because of the contractual requirements for them so show political ads and major announcements
 
I looked into these plans today. They pretty much suck. I priced out a custom plan with less channels and it came out about $20 more a month.
 
Sports is only thing keeping TV going for a lot of people. I'd drop Fios TV in a second if it wasn't for college football
 
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