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Message: [QUOTE="cuseinchina, post: 641500, member: 3079"] (Sorry for length in advance). I have spoken to many cable industry executives about this issue and they KNOW that this is coming one way or another. They have been very fearful of this until relatively recently. In private they will admit that bundling allows them to generate more ARPU - average revenue per user. They will also admit that they are only able to do this because they essentially operate monopolies. Adding a couple of channels every year justified price increases that have been 3 to 5 % above inflation for basic cable since the 80's. The argument that bundling increases the consumer choice held water for a while, but it is rapidly breaking down and the cable companies are quietly preparing for the shift in the business model - though their strategy is unlikely to save them from losing their monopoly level profit margins. The telecom/cable lobby is very aggressive and powerful and McCain's bill is in fact likely to go close to nowhere despite the fact that most voters would happily embrace it. But it won't matter. It won't matter because internet enabled TVs, along with people in their 20's and 30's who have already cut the cord on cable, will push the major content players - those with programming that people will pay up for (sports, movies, special interest channels with big audiences) - to shift their content on to the internet and completely bypass the traditional broadcast/cable model. Revenues will come from subscription and/or pay per view type of structure,a long with traditional and interactive advertising. Why let the cable company control when were and how your content is delivered and why let them have access to advertising time during your premium programming?? The range of content you can provide is so much greater, as is the ability to directly target prime consumers in a very very personal way if you are and advertiser - these companies are really only scratching the surface on this stuff now. But the point is it is the content providers who will drive the push to a-la-carte, and a-la-carte will eventually give way to direct provisioning of programming via the internet. This is not 20 years away, it's more like 5. The cable companies are responding in a number of ways - first, comcast essentially paid off verizon via a co-selling deal with verizon wireless to get them to stop the expansion of fios. At&t has stopped its rollout of Uverse as well and Uverse was never really a competetive product. So - they have a monopoly on the 'pipe into the home' and play to raise prices on top tier data services to well above $100 which will allow them to maintain their ARPU even without the bundles. The other thing they are doing is buying content companies because they understand that content is going to be higher margin than just owning the pipe over the long-term. That will work for a while, but eventually the cable industry will decline into a commodity business. Google fore example is launching 1GBPS internet in Kansas City and then is going to bring it to Austin Texas. The new wireless standard promises nearly 1GBPS as well and that will be rolling out in a few years around the country. Google could care less about earning a decent return on their network investments in these cities - they care about shifting content to the internet and branding/advertising via google software as the system of interacting with that content (eg - they make a killing off of their android software which they distribute for free to the mobile phone manufacturers). On the wireless side, the price of hanging equipment on a tower vs the price of burying a network that goes in to every single building is not even close. They will price Time warner into oblivion. Meanwhile Time warner gives you 30 mbps with their premium package. Compeition will force them to deliver a better product, better service, at prices that allow them to earn minimal profits. content is king. the ACC network will have a huge advantage if it is built for digital right from the start. Exciting times ahead. [/QUOTE]

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