Cable TV rates keep rising, and federal regulators said last week they're investigating -- again -- whether cable companies are gouging consumers.
Why bother? We're squandering limited regulatory resources policing an industry that's stubbornly clinging to an outdated business model (which, as a newspaperman, I know a little something about).
It's time for the $79-billion cable industry to switch to a la carte pricing that would allow customers to pay only for the channels they want to watch. Beyond being a matter of fairness, it would bring cable in line with the wholesale shift in how consumers now approach entertainment.
Call it the iPod factor. More on that in a moment.
First, an update from Washington, where Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said recently he was concerned about cable companies' using the fast-approaching switch to digital TV broadcasts as an excuse to reach deeper into customers' pockets.
On Feb. 17, all TV stations will switch from analog broadcasts to digital signals. People who use rabbit-ear antennas to receive programming will need a converter box. Most cable and satellite subscribers will be unaffected, although some with older TVs may need to switch their set-top boxes.
Consumers Union warned that some cable companies were shifting analog stations to digital only, making them unavailable to customers who receive basic or standard cable service. The group said cable companies were prodding people to sign up for costlier digital packages.
"Ever-increasing cable prices is one of the most significant issues consumers face today," Martin told reporters. "They are getting less and being charged the same or more."
The average U.S. home now receives a record 118.6 TV channels, according to a recent report from Nielsen Co. But the dirty little secret of the cable industry is that the average subscriber watches only about 17 channels regularly.
That's more than 100 channels that most cable subscribers are paying for but seldom if ever watching.
Because of the number of cable systems nationwide, it's hard to get a fix on the average monthly bill. But many estimates place this figure at $60 to $70.
This means, if all channels cost the same, the typical cable subscriber is spending about $9 a month for the 17 channels he wants to watch and about $55 for the 101 channels he never sees.
