TW Cable CEO: Programmers Oppose Smaller Channel Bundles [telecom]

| By Nat Worden Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES | | NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) Chief Executive | Glenn Britt is advocating for the cable industry to offer smaller | channel bundles at lower prices to customers as the cost of | programming rises and the U.S. economy struggles, but he says | television networks oppose the idea. | | "We raise the issue in our all our negotiations with programmers, | but across the board, they're opposed to the idea," Britt said in | an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. | | Britt said he isn't calling for a la carte pricing, which would | allow customers to tailor their own channel lineup and pay for | just the networks they want. He said such a scheme wouldn't work | in favor of consumers, but he acknowledged that less affluent | consumers want lower-priced, smaller channel offerings.

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Obtelecom: None. However, this subject has been discussed here many times before, so I trust that Bill will accept it as the latest round in an old thread.

Comment: As many of you know, I'm a retired cable guy so I'm familiar with this issue. But I'm certainly not here to defend the programmers

-- I was always on the other side of the table. Virtually every license agreement I ever saw either required carriage on the basic tier, or specified a substantially higher fee for carriage on any other tier. See my blog at

Neal McLain

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Posted 5 years ago by Neal McLain in General Telecommunications Forum

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