Sony-Viacom deal won't make a la carte TV a reality

Sony’s entrance into the cable market won’t necessary mean lower prices for consumers, nor will it mean a la carte viewing options, because the cable companies are deeply entrenched in the existing cable market.

Because networks and cable providers are dependent on each other to survive, networks like Viacom have no motivation to offer Sony anything other than what they give regular cable providers. Unless Sony is able to upend the cable industry completely (good luck with that), you still won't be able to start picking and choosing channels a la carte rather than paying for a raft of unwatched networks. Your cable bills won't go down. Instead, Sony and other Internet-based pay-TV services will probably look a lot like ... regular pay-TV.

[Aug 16]