Oh, I forgot to mention. Mainstream liberal media should be dead now, with only 5-10% of the population believing the “news” is factual or reliable. The reason MSNBC, CNN and other narrative spewing 1 sided channels are kept alive is by PACKAGES the cable and satellite companies. The money you spend on cable funds them and keeps them alive, not viewership. Kill the zombie media by canceling your cable, no money is like a shot in the head.
A very astute observation, Gonzo. As Dashiell Hammett always reminded us, “Follow the money”. Most channels on cable, including all 24 hour “news” channels, rely on being packaged with more desirable channels instead of on their own merits.
One of my clients a few back was a cable company most of you in the US know and loathe. While working at their repair site, I learned some fascinating things about the cable industry.
Your cable company is a monopoly because your local government sold them those monopoly rights for a fixed period. Cable companies keep about 5 cents of every dollar they bill while the rest goes to content providers along with federal, state, and local governments. That’s right, not just the Feds and your state tax your cable bill, your city, town, or county does so too. Local governments also get free channels, broadcasting equipment, and technicians to operate/maintain it all.
Content providers into three classes; Legally Required, 800lb Gorillas, and the Piggybacks. The legally mandated channels are all your local broadcast stations. (They still broadcast over the air, you just need a digital antenna.) The Fed decided that any cable package must include local broadcast stations for civil defense, weather, Amber alerts, and other such emergencies.
The 800lb gorillas are channels like ESPN or HBO. They’re the channels over 99% of people get cable to watch. When your bill goes up, you can be sure that ESPN, HBO, and the other 800lb gorillas have raised fees they charge your cable company.
The piggybacks are all the rest. They get a small fraction of viewers and an even smaller fraction gets cable to watch them. Some are so niche they may even pay your cable system instead of the other way around.
What keeps all those piggybacks around are subscription packages and what keeps subscription packages around is federal law. That’s right, the Feds mandate package pricing as opposed ala carte pricing and they do so thanks to all the bribes – sorry campaign contributions – the piggybacks pay to federal lawmakers. You can’t simply pay for ESPN or HBO, instead you have to pay for a package that bundles those channels with a couple hundred others you’ll never watch.
It’s corporate welfare, nothing more.
This could all change, however. Canada, of all places, recently allowed ala carte pricing on it’s cable systems and that change is being watched intently by systems in the US. If ala carte works well enough in Canada, we could see it very soon in the US.
Of course working “well” means the cable systems and 800lbs gorillas don’t lose money. A plan which includes the mandated channels plus ESPN or HBO alone should be cheaper than the current packaged bundle and that means more people should be interested in signing up. However, considering how many people – and especially young people – are migrating to other media platforms, ala carte pricing may be too late to save traditional cable.
The company I was consulting at is considered “successful” because it has lost subscribers at a slower rate than other cable companies. I also found it telling that they believed their real competitors were internet service providers and not other cable providers.
TL;DR – Kill your TV so CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and the rest will run out of money and die.
Do not date. Do not impregnate. Do not co-habitate. Above all, do not marry. Reclaim and never again surrender your personal sovereignty.
Blue Skies 3 years, 6 months ago.
If you keep doing what you've always done... you're gonna keep getting what you always got.
