Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously?
Stephen Sprunk
stephen at sprunk.org
Sat Jan 13 23:01:41 UTC 2007
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Thus spake Gian Constantine:
> The cable companies have been chomping at the bit for unbundled
> channels for years, so have consumers. The content providers will
> never let it happen. Their claim is the popular channels support the
> diversity of not-so-popular channels. Apparently, production costs
> are high all around (not surprising) and most channels do not support
> themselves entirely.
Regulators too. The city here tried forcing the MSOs to unbundle, and
the result was that a single channel cost the same as the bundle it
normally came in -- the content providers weren't willing to license
them individually. The city gave in and dropped it.
Just like the providers want to force people to pay for unpopular
channels to subsidize the popular ones, they likewise want people to pay
for unpopular programs to subsidize the popular ones. Consumers, OTOH,
want to buy _programs_, not _channels_. Hollywood isn't dumb enough to
fall for that, since they know 90% (okay, that's being conservative) of
what they produce is crap and the only way to get people to pay for it
is to jack up the price of the 10% that isn't crap and give the other
90% away.
Of course, the logical solution is to quit producing crap so that such
games aren't necessary, but since when has any MPAA or RIAA member
decided to go that route?
S
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking
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