Have you heard? Cable is a great benevolence given to us by selfless cable companies. At least that's what the commercials I've been seeing from Brighthouse and Time Warner would have me believe. I don't quite buy it. But whatever, the feeling I have that the companies are ripping me off and not bothering to give me any anime channels sucks.
So what's up with the cable companies anyway? Advertising. You think they make big bucks off the $40 some a month you pay them? Well, yes, but there's more money to be had here. See, they make some serious bank off ads. All those local ads you see on cable are big bucks to the cable companies. So where am I going with this? Ala Cart.
Why can't you just pick the channels you want? Seriously, I only ever watch five or so channels. Well, when a cable company has a certain number of subscribers, it can use that as leverage to get local ads. What percentage of subscribers watch lifetime? What about the History Channel (besides me?)? Well, if you could pick and choose channels, they would know. Cable companies prefer having 6 million potential viewers for all its channels than 100,000 certain ones. Now some people say that the popular channels (Comedy Central) will be worth more to cover for the ones that are worth less, but these are small local companies. They can't afford to pay too much for their ads. And can the around 30 channels that most people really cover the 90 plus channels that don't get picked very often?
Wisely, cable companies have moved into internet phone as fast as they can. Why let some other company charge their customers for something they can? Besides, the more you bundle together, the harder it is to switch away. They charge widely varying prices though, I think determined mainly by being just barely cheaper than the local phone options. Vonage isn't even in the ballpark for these companies.
The key for cable companies is to charge you as much as possible for everything traveling across the copper they have in the ground. They don't like the idea that someone else is selling you services that travel on their copper and they don't get a piece of the action.
Finally, the point: So, about that neutrality....
