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At this point, the problem is that people actively want only certain programs. For the vast majority of people, this isn't true. It's not even true for most pe

At this point, the problem is that people actively want only certain programs. For the vast majority of people, this isn't true. It's not even true for most people who insist they want a la carte. People hate being nickled-and-dimed. Three quarters of the cell phone market are people paying more for a bundle so they don't have to worry about how much each call to grandma costs them even though they end up paying more than they would if they kept careful track of their minutes and only bought what they needed. People want to be able to flip to Mad Men without clicking on the "Buy Now" button.

imperialWicket 13y ago
I'll grant that there's a healthy amount of assumption in that statement, but I think it's pretty safe in the context of many of the more expensive channels. The channels where someone just wants a channel qua channel tend not to be that expensive (Network channels, Cable non-premium channels). The more costly channels are the channels that offer premium content. I think it's safe to say that most users don't want an HBO subscription so that they can watch whatever HBO 2 happens to be playing this evening. They want some premium channel, or a couple particular movies. There is definite merit to the concept of just flipping to a show and not having to buy it. For the people who are concerned about this, or concerned about watching episodes the moment they air in a given timezone - a bundle from the current implementation seems appropriate.