Mac Breck wrote:
> Doug Freyburger wrote:
>
>> ...  If I got to
>> pick my channels cafeteria style I would have under 2 dozen and I
>> would be happy to pay for them as such.  Then the cable company would
>> know what channels are the profitable ones and what channels are not.
>> I figure they decided they might not like the answer if they offered
>> that.
>
> 100% ala carte, available to every customer, would probably be a
> selection/switching nightmare for them.

The first day I got my Tivo I went through the channel list and told it
I did not want to be shown certain channels.  That's 100% ala carte. 
Set it at the decoder box and download the subscribed list from the
decoder box and bill accordingly.  It should be easy.  There's no need
for switching.

For that matter cable decoder boxes have long gotten the entire cable
and refused to display the premium channels you don't subscribe to. 
It's the same thing as what my Tivo does but set at the provider end not
at the user end.  There's no need for it to be PPV because the idea of
subscription by list of channels is already present.  If they can move
Showtime All Samurai All The Time channel from 575 to 852 and my decoder
box tracks it then they are already able to do subscriptions one channel
at a time.

I think it is the higher price.  If I paid per channel I'd trim until I
only got channels I'm willing to pay for.  With the package concept I
pay for a package that gives me the channels I want and it ends up more
in total both channels and dollars.  And then I got through my Tivo list
telling it I don't get any sports channel and so on.
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