A la carte supporters rap ‘family tier’ plans

Critics complain that new plans by cable television companies to offer family-friendly programming packages are designed to thwart consumers from getting what they really want: a la carte sales, in which subscribers pick and choose their channels.

The marketing model traditionally used by cable companies and the two leading satellite TV services requires consumers to subscribe to channels in various pre-packaged “tiers.”

For most consumers, it has been impossible, for example, to subscribe to Nickelodeon without also subscribing to MTV or to get Discovery Channel without also getting FX. That means to get Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants” and his hijinks in Bikini Bottom, you might also have to take the bikinied bottoms running wild on MTV’s “Spring Break.”

“Right now, to get the good channels, you have to buy the raunchy channels,” complained Jim Metrock, head of the Birmingham, Ala.-based child advocacy organization Obligation Inc.

Portions of the cable industry, under pressure from the federal government, have come forward with a new willingness to package family-friendly channels into a special programming tier to help parents fend off programming with sex, violence and rough language.

Time Warner Cable, the nation’s second-largest operator, announced in mid-December the specifics of its family tier package. Later last month, Comcast Cable, the country’s top cable company, announced its plan to offer such a package early in 2006.

Pricing for the company’s new “family tier” will vary by market. On average, Comcast customers can expect to pay $31.20 monthly.

Comcast’s family tier will include 16 channels that the company identifies as “family-friendly programming networks of primarily G-rated content” as well as all broadcast network affiliates, religious channels, Hispanic programming and public access programming.

In addition to the 20 to 25 channels that customers receive on Comcast’s “basic cable” tier, the Family Tier will offer Disney Channel, Toon Disney, Sprout, Discovery Kids, Science Channel, Nickelodeon/Nick Too, Nickelodeon GAS, TBN, HGTV, Food Network, DIY, CNN Headline News, The Weather Channel, National Geographic, C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2.

All 16 channels in the family tier also will continue to be available as part of other existing packages, according to the company.

Proponents of a la carte multichannel pay TV programming – encompassing both cable and satellite TV – insist that talk of family tiers is merely an effort to derail their drive to force providers to sell programming by the individual channel.

“They are throwing a bone out there to keep the government from doing anything,” said Metrock. “In every other aspect of our lives, we buy what we need.

“Let’s say I just wanted ESPN. I’d have to buy 59 other channels to get ESPN,” he said. “Or if I wanted the Disney Channel, I would have to buy 59 other channels.

“They say you don’t have to watch them. Well, yeah, but I don’t have to pay for them either, or I shouldn’t have to.”

It’s not that simple, counters the cable TV industry.

“Several economic analyses have all concluded that a la carte would likely lead to higher prices, less choice and less diversity in programming,” said Brian Dietz, a spokesman for the National Cable Television Association.

The Parents Television Council says only a la carte channel availability and pricing can be a fair and effective solution.

“What we have always advocated is an opt-out approach,” said Dan Isett, director of corporate and government affairs for the Los Angeles-based TV watchdog organization, “where a consumer can take X number of channels and opt out of Y and then pay a reduced rate. That way, they would not financially subsidize the channels that they don’t watch and find offensive.”

The cable industry insists such an approach would not be viable, Isett acknowledged, but, he said, that’s what the industry was saying about family-friendly tiers “up until a couple of weeks ago.”

“Now all the sudden, they have the technological know-how and the desire to do a family tier,” Isett said. “But parents and families still are not given the opportunity to decide for themselves what they bring into their homes and are not given the option to opt out of what they don’t want or find offensive.”