Tech Talk: Cable a la carte
This article was first published by dmcityview.com The cable television industry is capitalism at its most corrupt. Outside of refusing to partake, cable and satellite subscribers have close to zero recourse in bringing down the cost of the service. While it would seem the fate of TV viewers is sealed, one provider has stepped in to potentially stem the tide of ever-climbing cable bills. Verizon Fios proposed last month to change its payment model to a system where networks are paid for their content based on the actual number of views they receive, not the current system of set, negotiated rates. Cable bills are, for the most part, comprised of “carriage fees,” which is the amount networks get paid per subscriber to their service. The amounts are rather small with payments anywhere from $4 for ESPN to less than a nickel for networks such as MTV2, LOGO and BBC World News. While those carriage costs don’t seem like much by themselves, many networks refuse to sell their content unl...
