Cox Cable

[rt123]

I heard something that cox cable was thinking of droping ESPN to save there customers money this would be a dumb move by any cable if they were test this .

[dwinth]

Here is a link to an article from January 23 that says that Cox Cable will be starting a new economy tier that will not include ESPN, ESPN2 as well as other popular channels. However, Cox Cable is not dropping ESPN from it's other program levels.

I would like to find some official announcement from Cox Cable that this is true.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/cox-scraps-espn-and-other-pricey-channels-for-new-low-cost-tier/

This is a fast-growing trend — and a worrisome one for many cable channels at risk of losing viewers, monthly payments from pay TV distributors, and advertising. But cable and satellite companies including Comcast and Time Warner Cable say they have to do something to keep cash-strapped customers from cutting the cord.  Cox says that soon all of its markets will offer its TV Economy service tier for about $35 a month, far less than the conventional TV Essential expanded basic package that runs as much as $60. Although pricing and options will vary slightly by market, the discounted service typically will include a mix of standard definition and HD versions of local broadcasters, shopping channels, C-SPAN, and superstation WGN in addition to a lineup with AMC, Animal Planet, BET, Cartoon Network, CNN, Comedy Central, Discovery, Disney Channel, E!, Food, Fox News, FX, Galavision, History Channel, Lifetime, MSNBC, NatGeo, Nickelodeon, TBS, TV Guide, TruTV, The Weather Channel, TV Land, and USA. In order to keep costs down, it won’t have ABC Family, A&E, Bravo, CNBC, ESPN, ESPN2, HGTV, HLN, MTV, regional sports, SyFy, Speed, Spike, TNT, TLC, The Travel Channel, and VH1. Operators pay ESPN about $4.69 per subscriber each month, while TNT costs $1.16, and Disney Channel goes for  94 cents, according to SNL Kagan. Earlier this month Disney CFO Jay Rasulo told analysts that he isn’t concerned that lots of subscribers will accept the sports-less pay TV tiers. “Fans love ESPN,” he said. And since the channel’s fans are more likely than other viewers to subscribe to cable’s broadband and phone services, “I can’t imagine that any (pay TV providers) will want to move their business models to skinnied down packages.”

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Owning a computer and not having the internet is like buying a refrigerator and not stocking it with food.

[dwinth]

Here is a link to the Cox Cable website that indicates the programming for the new economy tier. ESPN and ESPN are not a part of it. The are on the other tiers, though.

http://ww2.cox.com/residential/idaho/tv/tv-economy.cox?campcode=rl_tv_tv_economy_pm_102111_lnk_ida_6

I see that Fox New Channel is part of the econmony tier.

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Owning a computer and not having the internet is like buying a refrigerator and not stocking it with food.

[jbdet313]

If you look for earlier articles where Time Warner and Comcast were testing this idea, end analysis was that you weren't saving what you might be thinking. Just a marketing gimmick to pacify the people who want some sort of a-la-carte version. Actually, I thought Comcast had scrapped their testing of this, IIRC, from previous articles online. Well .... DUH .... once it gets out that you're not really saving anything, you decide to pull it? Maybe they ARE getting a little bit smarter, after gaining those programming geniuses behind the NBC prime time lineups these past years.

And, as I've said before, a-la-carte is NOT the land of Cable Utopia.

[rt123]

I seriously doubt they will do this i think they were just going to test this see if customers were interested .

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

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rt123 wrote:
I seriously doubt they will do this i think they were just going to test this see if customers were interested .

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Every cable provider that I know of already has a "bargain basement" package without ESPN.  Comcast, Time Warner and even U-Verse have it.  I pay just over $16 / month for my dad's Time Warner pacakage, including taxes / fees.  He gets al of his locals, including subchannels and a few Nationals, such as WGN.  They all, already do this, so this is old / irrelevant news.

[jbdet313]

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dhascall wrote:

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rt123 wrote:
I seriously doubt they will do this i think they were just going to test this see if customers were interested .

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Every cable provider that I know of already has a "bargain basement" package without ESPN.  Comcast, Time Warner and even U-Verse have it.  I pay just over $16 / month for my dad's Time Warner pacakage, including taxes / fees.  He gets al of his locals, including subchannels and a few Nationals, such as WGN.  They all, already do this, so this is old / irrelevant news.

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Not necessarily ..... what you're talking about used to be known as "Lifeline" cable, more commonly known as Local service, Basic, or something similar. This bare-bones package used to be a nominal fee, around $10/month, primarily marketed back in the days when satellite didn't have locals. So those subscribers could avoid a second antenna on their premises.

What the cable companies are doing NOW is using the anti-$5/month ESPN Mafia payment sentiments in a marketing game. They are trying to make these packages look like a-la-carte, where if you don't want sports, you don't have to pay for it. Trouble is, once you build a package without it, the price is basically the same IF you're paying close enough attention. This helps them deflect criticism about not allowing enough "choice" when it comes to channels that aren't being watched not being included, and the appearance of a-la-carte.