
A la Carte Is the Worst Idea Anyone Has Ever Had - DanBC
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/la-carte-worst-idea-anyone-has-ever-had-151814
======
onion2k
20 million people would pay $30/month for ESPN, raising the $600m it gets now,
but instead people get it for just $6 because 100m pay. That means 80m people
are paying $6 for something they don't want. Those 20m who do want the channel
are doing very well from the charity of the others. The problem though, is
that those 80m aren't happy. Eventually they'll figure there are better things
to spend their $6 on, so they'll cancel their cable entirely _because they can
't just cut out the things they don't want_ and do other things with their
money. Then _all_ the channels suffer.

The point that the article fails to make is that the fees channels receive
wouldn't necessarily remain the same if people paid for channels individually.
Some channels, ones with smaller audiences, would have to charge more to get
the same revenue, or cut costs. Or close entirely. That's fine. It doesn't
matter. Other things would replace them. That's how markets work.

