PTC Launches Cable a la Carte Calculator

HowCableShouldBe.com Attempts to Calculate Cable Bills Using Menu of Network Choices with Associated Subscriber Fees

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/25/2007 11:40:00 AM

The Parents Television Council launched yet another salvo in its campaign to pressure cable operators to provide their programming a la carte, but even it said the menu should be taken with a grain of salt.

The PTC Tuesday was promoting the launch of a Web site, HowCableShouldBe.com, which attempts to calculate cable bills based on a menu of network choices with associated subscriber fees -- what cable programmers charge an operator per person to carry their networks.

There is a big caveat, however. The site warns surfers: "The programming rates and distributor mark-ups presented are derived from the best publicly available information and, therefore, may not be entirely accurate. The data should not be presented as necessarily factual or accurate."

But the PTC goes on to contend that the prices might even be higher.

The PTC's basic -- make that expanded basic -- point is to suggest how cable bills would be lowered if viewers could simply choose among networks or, in the case of this site, "deselect" networks and subtract their cost.

Cable operators argued that the equation is far more complicated. For example, the site does not figure the price of lifeline basic, which comprises the TV channels that cable operators have no option but to deliver since carriage is mandated by the government.

They also pointed out that the price of the networks would go up in an a la carte world since fewer people would be taking the channels and many would have to raise subscriber fees to compensate for the decline in reach and attractiveness to advertisers.

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  /www.howcableshouldbe.com appears to calculate "your cable bill" entirely on programming costs and not on the cost of equipment, right of way fees, and other costs actually required to deliver ANY programming. As an experiment, I unchecked ALL these optional programs and submitted the form. I got a server error. I then went back and said, ok, I'll keep the SciFi channel at 15 cents per month. Even though a marked up SciFi channel may be only 15 cents per month, a cable company clearly cannot deliver just that channel to me for that price. That would not cover their cost for postage for my monthly bill. HowCableShouldBe is using a faulty and misleading economic model.

  
  

  
  Harold Hallikainen - 9/26/2007 9:51:00 AM EDT
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