New Verizon Tv Proposal To Drop Channels No One Is Watching
mm112
Specialist - Level 1

The wall street journal is reporting that verizon is going to go the route of trying to find a way to rid themselves of channels that no one is watching or has low viewership where it will allow verizon to actually maintain a tv lineup that will consist of channels that people actually want and are watching. How it would work is that verizon will be receiving feedback from their fios customer's set top boxes where if people are watching at least five minutes of a channel then that may be something that they would keep. With the rising costs of sports programming and the constant complaints by the customers of companies like directv who continues to raise their rates for no reason at all this plan could help verizon attract more customers who do not like their current tv provider. "We are paying for a customer who does not even go to the channel" said verizon's chief negotiator who is responsible for making deals for channels that verizon adds to their lineup. Under the new proposal each channel would be paid based on how many viewers it has and if no one is watching them then you say goodbye to those channels as they are simply not worth keeping because no viewer wants them. Verizon's proposal to go decide what channels they will carry based on viewership and not based on whether some of those channels are part of a larger package to try to secure a major network would drive down the cost of verizon fios customer's bills. If this proposal goes through then you can say adios to those byron allen channels, religious channels and those nonstop infomercial channels like wow tv. Some people do occasionally leave their tvs on certain channels accidentally so if someone leaves it on a channel for more than five minutes they are in their own way saying that they would like to keep that channel even if they were only flipping through the channels to find something to watch.   

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Re: New Verizon Tv Proposal To Drop Channels No One Is Watching
walt178
Specialist - Level 3

Verizon is  currently in talks with several "midtier and smaller" television companies.  In other words, companies where they have the clout to get concessions.  When it comes to the major content providers that stratgy is less likely to be successful. 

A few years ago Cox tried to put ESPN into a premium package. Their reasoning was that ESPN and FOX sports accounted for 8% of their viewership, but 32% of their costs. ESPN and FOX pushed back insisting they would not allow it.  Cox lost  that battle. 

The content providers have an economic interest in keeping the current reimbursement policy in place.  The big ones have the strentht to stand up to the service providers. So I'm not looking for any significant changes without regulatory intervention.

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Re: New Verizon Tv Proposal To Drop Channels No One Is Watching
film111
Specialist - Level 1

Heh.  " would drive down the cost of verizon fios customer's bills."  Does anyone really believe that, even if Verizon was successful, subscribers would have lower bills????

And by the way, Verizon already is aware that no one watches the .tv channels.  But last year, they renewed the contract!  And now will be adding more!  That is certainly in contradiction to what is claimed in the article.

Re: New Verizon Tv Proposal To Drop Channels No One Is Watching
bobbo527
Specialist - Level 3

@mm1 wrote:

. If this proposal goes through then you can say adios to those byron allen channels, religious channels and those nonstop infomercial channels like wow tv.


And that is a bad thing? Personally It boggles my mind that Verizon is actually going to be adding 2 more of those Byron Allen commercial crapfest .tv  channels so we'll have EIGHT of them!! Smiley Mad  I like the proposal, first step towards ala carte programming, I would love to be able to dump a hundred of the channels I never ever tune into (like those .tv channels).

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Re: New Verizon Tv Proposal To Drop Channels No One Is Watching
Nan2527
Enthusiast - Level 3

I have mixed feelings about the 'packages'.  I wouldn't care if they dropped all channels of shopping, religion, children, sports, and MTV as I use none of them; but I'm not a fan of a la carte since that would mean I have to pick the channels I get, and maybe there's something interesting out there that I am unaware of.  By having packages, I'm able to test some channels that I never would have thought to subscribe to.  I'd've never suspected to enjoy movies and history on the Military channels, for example.

On the other hand, I'm very unhappy to be paying for all those sports channels and even a couple of specific (expensive) fees for have regional sports when I want absolutely none of it.  It particularly annoys me that I'm paying for sports, religion, and shopping channels that I never, ever would watch.

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Re: New Verizon Tv Proposal To Drop Channels No One Is Watching
pzimmer7778
Enthusiast - Level 3
You aren't paying for shopping or religious channels. They pay Verizon (and other providers) to be on their service.
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