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from the now-we-can-have-our-cake-and-eat-it-too dept.
Verizon is the first cable provider to take a step toward the a-la carte cable the entire industry is being forced into.
Fox Sports and ESPN claim that Verizon FiOS is violating programming contracts by relegating sports channels to optional TV bundles, but Verizon has pressed ahead with its new bundles anyway.
Verizon's Custom TV bundles, which became available two days ago, let FiOS customers buy a basic cable TV package with or without sports channels. With Custom TV, customers get 34 channels plus the choice of two channel packs. ESPN, Fox Sports, and other sports channels are available in the sports-themed packs, so customers don't have to pay anything extra to get them. However, customers could instead choose other channel packs, such as lifestyle or pop culture, and avoid the sports channels altogether.
These days sports are cited as the last bastion of the traditional cable industry, but if a-la carte sinks cable ESPN and sports content providers may have no choice but to go along.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Kell on Thursday April 23 2015, @09:37AM
Remember: if the content providers won't offer it at the right price, bittorrent pirates will.
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