Wednesday 4 February 2015

A la carte TV subscription is not what we envisioned

We are sort of beginning to get a-la-carte pay TV, where you can choose just the channels you want from a wide selection, but it's not quite what I imagined or hoped for. What I imagined was one service (though multiple competing services would be better) with a wide range of channel selections available and the ability to choose only those you want to pay for, not to be forced to buy them in bundles.

What we are beginning to see now are many individual online services - Netflix, Quickflix, Hulu - with different exclusive content each, making them the equivalent of the "channels" of traditional pay TV. Each one has its own subscription costs, which means you're paying individually for the particular shows you desire. So there we are, paying for individual "channels" based on the content we want. It's just a much more disjointed and unsatisfying experience than what we want as consumers.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - And consumer desires tend to be at odds with company desires for profit.
PPS - Which is basically an explanation for the entire entertainment industry.

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