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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: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday April 23 2015, @08:30PM
> I am fed up with bundles where I have to accept something I have no use for in order to access something I want.
Sounds like pop music albums from the 1980s. Pay $15 for an album with one good song and 30 minutes of filler. Lot of people got fed up with that 20 years ago. Last time I bit on one of those deals was the 90s, got a "Best of" CD, hoping it would have lots of good music I didn't know, and it was still mostly crap. 3 good songs. (It was Bachman-Turner Overdrive if you want to know.) Also those "Best of" collections are often missing at least one of the artist's top hits, and not because they ran out of room on the CD either.
Really, I am amazed the cable TV revolt didn't happen sooner. I always underestimate what people will put up with for their favorite shows. But I am a cord never.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday April 24 2015, @12:19AM
You very precisely hit the nail square on the head why I will have absolutely nothing to do with music in uneditable formats.
I do not mind paying a dollar for a song, as I consider that a reasonable fee for cataloging it and making a clean copy available for download. However I do insist that what I get will be editable and mixable so I can create my own custom playlists.
Otherwise, I consider it like a wax apple... looks good, but nothing I can do with it 'cept throw it as stray cats. Can't eat it, so no use taking any... even if they are giving 'em away.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]