From: roby@chopin.udel.edu (Scott W Roby)
Subject: Re: Will we have to pay to see Star Trek?
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 02:36:16 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.155308.17969@axis.dsg.ti.com> rbeck@mordor.dseg.ti.com writes:
>My $0.02 worth concerning cable access:

>Cable companies are a Value Added Reseller (VAR).  Your local cable company

And so is your local broadcast station.  Neither the local cable company 
(assuming there are any left that have not been absorbed by the giants) 
or your local broadcast station produce the shows you watch.  They 
simply offer you the service of getting the shows from NY, LA, wherever...
to your home.  The broadcast station offers you the service for free 
by charging the advertisers.  The cable company makes you pay a price 
and still shows commercials.  The whole point of commercials at the 
beginning of the TV age was to enable you to watch TV without having to 
pay for it.  Do the commercials on USA, TNT, etc help fund our local cable 
companies?  If not -  then get rid of them.  If they do, then jack up the 
commercial revenue rate by the amount necessary to make basic cable free.  
You won't convince me that commercials will disappear if the rates get 
higher -- cable customers don't disappear when their rates get higher and 
there is an incredible glut of commercials and infomercials already on TV.

>provides a service.  You as a consumer have a choice to utilize this
>service or not.  

You also have the choice whether to view broadcast TV or no TV.  (It's an 
easier choice because they don't charge you for their value added "reselling" 
of network shows.)

>In the Dallas area we have the major three network
>stations as well as several local or independent stations.  I can receive
>these stations fairly well with my little rabbit ears antenna.
>
>However, I also like to watch TBS from Atlanta and WGN from Chicago and CNN
>and the Court Channel.  I can't get these stations without cable access
>unless I go out and buy a satellite dish and my back yard isn't big enough
>for that.

But I can argue that I can't get NBC via rabbit ears without the help of 
the local broadcast station.  Yet they don't charge me, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, 
they still make a profit without charging me.

Why can't cable do the same??????

>So, I subscribe to cable to receive all those out-of-town stations as well
>as ST-TNG with crystal clear reception (that I don't get with my rabbit
>ears).  If they should ever sell the rebroadcast rights to a station I
>don't get...oh well...  But for now I get the Sci-Fi channel as well as so
>many others I never get bored.

I subscribe, too.  I'm simply asking why commercial TV on cable can't 
be funded (via advertisers alone) the same way that commercial TV by 
broadcast is.

>What really "burns my butt" though is the way the cable company and/or the
>local government tack on little charges for this & that.  My bill just went
>up about $0.68 per month to help support the local cable access channel.  I
>don't *CARE* about the Plano council meetings and have *NO* desire to watch
>it on TV.  Oh well...

What "burns my butt" is that I don't get the Sci-Fi channel and I can't 
choose a local cable competitor that carries it because there is no 
competition.    :-(

>I just thought of this...think of your cable company as a gateway to the
>Internet.  Your machine runs just fine without Internet access but you get
>a whole lot more information by having an Internet connection & that
>connection isn't free!

But your analogy would also apply to a TV without a broadcast station 
available.  I'm sorry, but every argument you've made about why 
cable should charge for their service can also be applied to 
a broadcast station.  And yet the broadcasters don't charge the 
customers and the cablers do.  I'm simply asking whether the basic 
cable fee is a true necessity, or could the revenue needed to support 
it be obtained from alternate sources as is done with broadcasting.

>IMHO...flame if you want but I'll be too busy to answer!

No flames.  Just more musings on why things are the way they are.  


-- 
Scott W. Roby           *This sentence no verb.*      "No Matter where you go..
Phys.& Astr.Dept.    ///// / /  /  *|*  \  \ \ \\\\\      there you are!"
Univ.of Delaware    ((((( ( (  (  * + *  )  ) ) )))))   -> Buckaroo Banzai
roby@brahms.udel.edu \\\\\ \ \  \  *|*  /  / / /////   *Standard Disclaimer*