Comcast offers "family-friendly" cable package

[bicker]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051222/tv_nm/media_comcast_dc

Now just wait for it: Tomorrow the complaints will start about how "expensive" the family tier is. I don't think the critics of the industry who pushed for this ever understood the economics of the business -- I don't think they ever understood that there are economies of scale lost when tiers are constructed based on content instead of based on distributor/source.

Just wait for it... it'll start tomorrow, I bet.

 

[stinkerbelle]

I don't think they ever understood that there are economies of scale lost when tiers are constructed based on content instead of based on distributor/source.

I'm sorry...ya wanna dumb that down for me?

 

[bicker]

Sure. When a cable television company offers a set of channels as a package, they can take advantage of incentives that a distributor, such as Time-Warner or Scripps, gives for subscriptions to their entire line-up of channels. So it is much less expensive, for example, to provide one customer with HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living and Great American Country, rather than providing each of those five channels to five separate customers. Of course, the distributors have good reason to offer these economies of scale: The cost of acquisition for a customer is the same whether you sell them one channel or the whole set, if they're sold as a set. Even though the customer doesn't care about the other channels, initially, the fact that they're provided with those channels help demonstrate the value of the package they're included in. People see "50 channels for $35" and feel they're getting value, just like at Vinny T's how they feel they're getting a good value because they get a huge 12 oz steak, even though they really didn't care to eat that much.

 

[bicker]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051222/tv_nm/media_comcast_dc

Now just wait for it: Tomorrow the complaints will start about how "expensive" the family tier is. I don't think the critics of the industry who pushed for this ever understood the economics of the business -- I don't think they ever understood that there are economies of scale lost when tiers are constructed based on content instead of based on distributor/source.

Just wait for it... it'll start tomorrow, I bet.

Okay, so I was a little off with the timing. However, I was correct about them knowing absolutely nothing about the business they're trying to stick their arrogant noses into: http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/release/2005/1227.asp

What predictable hubris by the PTC. They act just like spoiled children.

 

[Marseeya]

Just a case of "damned if you do and damned if you don't."

A bunch of whiners, indeed.

 

[floridafam]

Most people just don't get it when it comes to cable television pricing.

Thanks for the link.

I don't understand why theses parents don't just block out the channels they don't like. I don't see the need for a special package.

 

[bicker]

I don't understand why theses parents don't just block out the channels they don't like.

When asked that question, the spokesperson for one of these groups said, "Why should they?"

Be afraid -- be very afraid.

 

[pat fan]

I don't understand why theses parents don't just block out the channels they don't like. I don't see the need for a special package.

For one thing, they keep adding channels to your package without telling you.I know I was very surprised by a channel I surfed upon one day.Not family friendly in any way,shape or form!Hard to block it when you don't know it's there.

FWIW,I don't have Comcast but might be interested if DirecTV offered something, but of course I would also have to consider the price and that's just the economics of my household.Sorry if price playing a factor in my decisions offends anyone (not meant to anyone in particular,just throwing it out there).

 

[bicker]

Well, there are other options for filtering out content. For example, you can now filter out all unrated content, and all content rated TV-PG, TV-14 or TV-MA, and that makes far more sense than filtering out content by network, since the same network might broadcast some TV-Y programs and some TV-MA programs.

Price plays a factor in everyone's decisions. I don't think anyone has a problem with that. I think the issue is that folks like the PTC expect that they should be able to dictate both sides of the commercial transaction, the offer and the acceptance. That's not the way business works in a mass-market within a capitalist society. Rather, the seller decides what to offer and for how much, and the buyer decides what to accept and what to reject. That is the ultimate power -- with it buyers can drive what sellers offer, but the don't get to dictate what sellers offer and at what price -- that would be utterly unfair.

 

[floridafam]

Usually, people think it's a good thing when channels are added to their package.

I don't know what cable company you have but with Comcast you just have to look on the guide to see what channels are where. We have every cable channel known to man and our kids have never seen anything bad.

This article is just a good point of people complaining about something they really don't understand. Much like everybody did when they thought Comcast was going to buy Disney. That actually probably would have been a good thing in the long run as far as cable bills are concerned (but that's a whole different thread.)

 

[floridafam]

There's nothing wrong with price being a factor in anyone's decisions. That's how things work. I just feel that most cable companies offer certain packages as a way of keeping their prices down and this pick and choose stuff will only cause prices to go up.

 

[mickeyfan2]

I think that we should just let those people in the article tell us what we want to watch. I also hope they screen my commercials too.

 

[Tigger_Magic]

I think that we should just let those people in the article tell us what we want to watch. I also hope they screen my commercials too.

I know you are joking, but be careful what you "wish" for -- even jokingly. PTC would like nothing better than to be put in charge of all broadcast TV. (Shudder)

 

[bicker]

Exactly: Be afraid -- be very afraid. This is a very diverse society, and no group should presume to put itself in the role of trying to disrupt the free market, which is what these PTC yahoos would love to do.

 

[N.Bailey]

I certainly wouldn't be interested in a package like that, but I don't think it's too expensive. Basic cable starts in the $40 price range in my hick town with Adelphia.

I see nothing wrong with offering a package like this either. No one is forced to subscribe to it. It's just giving families who want it the option of getting it.

 

[weregoingtodw]

I guess I just don't get the reason for this? What's wrong with just monitoring what your children watch? Teaching them self-control and self-discipline? Or ::heaven forbid:: ::gasp:: canceling the cable, or blocking it aren't otherwise available to supervise?

Really, if your child is watching something that (s)he shouldn't, isn't that ultimately the parent's responsibility? I'm extremely strict with what my child (10) watches. I monitor her television time, she knows which shows are appropriate, and she asks me each time before she even turns on the television.

 

[bicker]

<sarcasm on> "Why should they?" Why should parents be responsible for what their children watch? <sarcasm off>

 

[weregoingtodw]

<sarcasm on> "Why should they?" Why should parents be responsible for what their children watch? <sarcasm off>

Just as we shouldn't be responsible for what they eat, what they wear, where they go, who they're friends with, heck, it's not *our* fault we had them!

::sharing your sarcasm::

 

[cardaway]

What predictable hubris by the PTC. They act just like spoiled children.

Not the terms I would use.

Groups like that claim to have millions of members yet most things produced that matches what they say passes for a "family" show fails big time. Guess those members of those don't practice what they preach. They are out there watching "Wedding Crashers" with the rest of us.

 

[scubamouse]

Doesn't every parenting book say to limit kids TV and if they watch it, parents should watch TV with them?

I have to punch in a code to watch Sleeper Cell or 'the L Word', ITA with whoever said to use the MA/PG etc codes to block the channels.

Where's my lobby to fight having to pay for all the ESPN channels I don't watch?