Cadillac90 {l Wrote}:eagle9903 {l Wrote}:Cadillac90 {l Wrote}:The a la carte model will never work. It wouldn't generate enough money to produce the amount of content needed. Cable channels and networks don't know what is the next Modern Family or Duck Dynasty so they have to produce a lot of shows to find the hits. You can't do that with a la carte cable, sorry it'll never happen.
You're probably right, but I think tiered pricing might expand though.
Agreed
When I refer to a la carte, I am referring to Cable companies being able to contract with each TV station. They in turn would bundle them into packages offered the subscriber (something like basic (50 standard channels), premium (same 50 channels but avialable in standard and HD) and elite (400 channels standard and HD) and then have supplemental packages like Sport, Live Concerts, On Demand, etc.).
As to where I think the near future is going... I think you will see more and more situations where the content providers give access directly to the customer. I am thinking something along the lines of South Park Studios and ESPN3. Hulu and Netflix are serving as an intermediary now, but I think that Apple will try to centralize everything like they did with iTunes. The challenge is monetization. No one is going to pay to watch an episode of anything. They'll pay for a service to watch... so long as it isn't some big effing ordeal to navigate to (right now this may be streamers biggest problem). Don't dismiss advertising dollars as as the content provider would be able to cut out the middle man of the network and cable company.
All in all... the cash cow that was predicted to be Conference Network Channels who would be paid insane somes because Time Warner didn't want to lose FOX don't seem as assured at the moment. That said, as content providers access folks directly, it is possible that these Conference Networks still provide the greatest profit potential. But... the evolving market sure changes the analysis.