A la Carte Update 11.25.07

PROGRAMMERS GET MORE TIME TO FIGHT FCC'S A LA CARTE PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Major cable programming suppliers on Wednesday received additional time to prepare their attack on a Federal Communications Commission proposal to permit cable and satellite distributors to purchase channels on an a la carte basis from programming vendors. Responding to requests for more time from Disney, Viacom Fox, and NBC Universal, the FCC’s Media Bureau agreed to move the due date for initial comments from Nov. 30 to Jan. 4, 2008 and reply comments from Dec. 17 to Jan. 22, 2008. In general, the Big Four sought more time because they said the issues were complex; their experts needed to prepare studies; FCC issues overlapped with issue presented in a class action law suit on retail a la carte; and the holiday season caused scheduling problems.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6504695.html?rssid=196

* Studio chiefs claim no need for cable regulations
In a letter dated Tuesday , News Corp. president and COO Peter Chernin, Disney president and CEO Robert Iger, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, and NBC Universal president and CEO Jeff Zucker urged FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to back off his attempts to restore cable regulation.
http://www.news.com/Studio-chiefs-claim-no-need-for-cable-regulations/21...

* TV Execs Blast FCC Cable Regulation Proposal
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=122156

BLAND MENU IF CABLE GOES A LA CARTE
[SOURCE: New York Times 11/24, AUTHOR: Joe Nocera]
[Commentary] Why should cable subscribers have to pay for any stations they don't want? Why does the cable industry force us to absorb the cost of the 75 or 100 stations that make up “extended basic” or “extended digital”— which most cable customers subscribe to — in order to see the much smaller universe of stations we truly want to watch? À la carte. It sounds so appealing, doesn't it? Instead of having to accept — and pay for — all the channels bundled by your cable company, you could pick from a menu and pay for only the ones you watch. As Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College, nicely put it in a paper he wrote on the subject: “Imagine walking into a department store to buy a pair of slacks and being told by the salesman that in order to buy the pair you like, you would also have to buy a particular shirt, a particular tie and two pairs of socks. Department stores do not attempt such bundling, because the consumer would not stand for it.” Yet that’s what the cable industry does. À la carte is an idea that has been floating around Washington for years. One of its biggest champions is Gene Kimmelman, an executive at Consumers Union; he sees it as both a way “to create marketplace pressure to reduce prices” and to goose competition. Yet as appealing as the idea might seem at first glance, there is a reason that Congress has not taken the bait and passed an à la carte law. À la carte would be a consumer disaster. For those of you who yearn for it, this is a classic case of “be careful what you wish for.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/24/business/media/24nocera.html
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