Bundling equals diversity and serendipity for cable as much as for newspapers

Posted by Ben Compaine

Matthew Gilbert, a writer for the Boston Globe, published a column last Thursday headlined “Ordering a la carte would make cable a tastier treat.” His topic sentence:

…when I shop for cable TV channels, don't bully me into paying for TV I don't care for. If I don't want to invite a preacher, a gruesome medical operation, or -- gag -- Nancy Grace into my home, I shouldn't have to.

He continues:

Rather than forcing us to buy TV in crazy, mixed-up combos, where non-sports fans pay for ESPN and those without children buy Noggin, a la carte cable would enable us to make specific decisions about what gets piped into our homes. Parents would be able to make specific decisions about what gets piped into their kids' brains.“I think it's called freedom of choice.

Now, while the discussion of  what makes sense for how cable companies package and sell their service is certainly legitimate for discission, I found it curious that this was coming from the keys of a print newspaper scribe. Following is the note I sent to Mr. Gilbert (no response yet).

I found it curious a newspaper writer is complaining about bundling. The newspaper is, historically, the original bundle.I would like to buy just the parts of the newspaper I read: maybe the City/Region section and Business. I look at the front page only because it hits me in he face when I get the paper. Sports I could do without-- I'm a Philadelphia sports follower, so the Patriots and Red Sox etc don't grab me. Sidekick [a tabloid insert] is a waste of newsprint from my perspective.

Oh, and I don't need the Living Section, though I did find your article there yesterday as I was pulling that section out of the bundle. What serendipity!

Now that I think about it, I do sometimes read something or other in the front section, but just 'cause I already have it. Same for Sports now and again. (But never in Sidekick).

But if I had my choice, would the Globe sell me just the two sections I really want? Maybe for $.10 each??

Of course, the Globe's cost would not decline much even if they had to print fewer overall pages. The real cost of newspaper production is the first copy cost-- additional copies are just the marginal cost of paper, ink an a few cents for running the press one more rotation. For the Globe to maintain its staff, it would need to rejigger its charges to keep revenue from falling from both readers and advertisers. So while the full bundle may be priced at $.50, each separate section might be $.20. Thus for my two sections I would only save a dime. Heck, might as well get the whole thing then.

I know you can see where this leads to in the cable industry. The cost of the cable plant does not decrease under a la carte. The cost of program acquisition would not decrease commensurate with any declines in subscribers to particular channels-- the programmers costs don't decrease if viewership drops, say, 15%. As much as it annoys me personally that the most expensive single channel for Comcast is ESPN, which I could easily live without, I understand why a la carte is not as simple as it seems to the audience that doesn't understand the economics of the newspaper or cable system.

And we should not under estimate the value of serendipity and diversity in the value of the bundle. One of the great joys of the newspaper is stumbling across something that we wouldn't have seen if all media were stove piped-- that is, focused only on what we know we want or like. Like the Web is for many. I'm glad I saw your column, just as I'm glad that in using the "next channel" button on my remote I occasionally stumble on something on the Biography or History channels. If asked to pay for them I probably wouldn't. But they're bundled and it's not such a bad thing to hear some promotion on the radio or elsewhere for one of their programs and, what the heck, I watch since it's available. Bundling equals diversity.

In fact much of the a la carte argument -- the serendipity-- will fade as on-demand becomes more prevent. In the meantime, we still see that more households are adding on services on cable, not cutting back.

So I urge the Globe to keep their bundle and not insist that Comcast shed theirs.