

The 'Dodgers tax' - anigbrowl
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-dodgers-cable-tv-fees-20120330,0,7521642.story

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anigbrowl
Dear moderator, I would prefer that you didn't change my title from 'The
sports team tax' to 'The 'Dodgers tax'', because the phenomenon exists in many
places, but not all HN readers may know who or what the 'Dodgers' are -
especially readers outside the US.

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Joeboy
Especially confusing as "tax dodgers" is a common phrase.

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usaar333
Or to put another way, the LA dodgers have been until now undercharging for
their broadcast rights.

This change is clearly really bad for the cable companies, and I'm surprised
they haven't started charging their customers for such premium programming. If
they don't, the non-watchers who are effectively subsidizing the watchers will
slowly flee, further driving up cable prices..

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Game_Ender
One of the top reasons people mention for sticking with cable is for live
sports. If that's case, it might just be sports watchers are the only ones
left on eventually anyways. I for one would be much more likely to have cable
if they had al-cart pricing.

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forrestthewoods
I dumped my cable subscription and switched to iTunes à la carte pricing as
it's much, much cheaper for me personally. The only thing I miss is live
sports.

I think many cable subscribers could save money by switching to the iTunes
model but most people are happier paying a flat subscription fee than buying
things piecemeal. Paying $40 for a single TV season sucks in comparison to $60
or $80 all you can watch buffet.

