According to a news release released by the Nielsen Co. in 2006 the average U.S. home received watched only 15 or 16 channels with any regularity.

Yet in 2006 the average household paid for 104 channels. This means, on average, U.S. households pay for 88 to 89 channels that they do not watch.

Being industry hacks that they are, the Nielsen folks thought this was the story:

What this indicates is that as the number of choices grows and channels are increasingly niche-oriented, viewers don’t have to wander as far to find programming they like. They ferret out a dozen or so favorite channels and stick with them.

When in fact the real story is that cable and satellite channel packaging remains one of the biggest consumer rip-offs in existence.

Since cable is franchised, shouldn’t our local leaders be addressing this in balance of power? If Los Angeles is any example, not likely. In L.A. the very people who are supposed to be watching our backs by promoting al a carte pricing are in fact advocating the opposite. Football-crazed City Councilman Bernard Parks has been on a blitz to have the local cable monopoly include the very niche NFL Channel in a basic tier. That’s right he is abusing his position to promote a policy that is diametrically opposed to what consumers groups advocate. Because of Bernard’s influence and the greed of the cable networks and cable providers we all pay for the NFL Channel whether or not we watch it. Why is Bernard doing this? We’d ask him but he’s most likely jetting off to another NFL event. Exactly who are his constituents anyway?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 3:57 pm by Insider and is filed under How Not To Succeed In Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.