[opendtv] RCN offers to test a la carte pricing;Cable firm relents following Senate decency hearings - 12/14/2005 10:59:00 AM - CED - CA6291550
- From: Mark Aitken <maitken@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 15:09:28 -0500
RCN offers to test a la carte pricing;
Cable firm relents following Senate decency hearings
December 14, 2005
Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
December 14, 2005 Wednesday
THIRD EDITION
By Keith Reed, Globe Staff
From LexisNexis
RCN Corp., a cable company with subscribers in Massachusetts, yesterday
offered to test a pricing plan that would give subscribers greater
flexibility to choose the channels they want, another sign that the
cable industry's decades-long united front against a la carte pricing
may be crumbling.
Responding to a week of hearings in the Senate over decency standards in
cable programming, RCN chief executive Peter D. Aquino said yesterday
that he supported Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin
Martin's view that cable companies should voluntarily adopt more
"family-friendly" programming options. He endorsed the idea of selling
channels by theme as a way to achieve that goal.
Martin and some legislators have indicated they would seek to impose
controls on cable programs, including legislation that would impose a la
carte pricing, if the industry does not limit access to programs filled
with sex and violence on their systems.
"RCN believes that themed-tier a la carte would allow cable operators to
offer consumers smaller programming tiers, limited to the kind or
categories of programming they most value," Aquino said in a statement
the company issued yesterday afternoon.
His comments could mean that a la carte pricing would become an option
for local subscribers. RCN has more than 70,000 subscribers in
Massachusetts, according to data from the state Department of
Telecommunications and Energy.
The cable industry has long rejected a la carte letting subscribers
choose channels instead of prepackaged lineups arguing that that model
would make programming more expensive and limit consumers' choices.
But that stance weakened last week when Charles Dolan, chairman of
Cablevision, the country's fifth-largest cable company, said in a Senate
hearing that a la carte was a viable option for the industry. Also
forcing the cable industry's hand is looming competition from phone
companies like Verizon Communications Inc., which plans to launch a
fiber-optic based television service in Massachusetts next year and has
said it supports a la carte pricing.
Aquino stopped short of endorsing a total a la carte model, instead
saying that RCN would like to test selling themed tiers of programming,
such as family channels in one grouping and sports in another, as soon
as it could. A spokeswoman for the company said last night that no dates
for a potential trial had been set.
Bruce Leichtman, president of telecommunications research firm Leichtman
Research Group in Durham, N.H., said he is not convinced a la carte will
be a reality in the near future.
"Can it physically be done? Yes it can. Will it? No way," he said.
"Certainly there's a segment that wants less and to pay less for it, but
a la carte is not going to lower rates, so what we might see is some
family-friendly tiers."
http://www.cedmagazine.com/article/CA6291550.html
--
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Regards,
Mark A. Aitken
Director, Advanced Technology
<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
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Business TEL: (410) 568-1535
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until every part of it had been
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