• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 8, 2015

Expecting high price increases from your pay TV provider in the coming months? Perhaps we can expect something else in light of those increases: more talk about cord-cutting, cord-shaving; and  a la carte programming.

To pay TV proponents, all this is justified. They would say for what pay TV consumers are getting, it’s still a great deal. Which means you can expect even higher prices down the line.

Yet at some point it isn’t justified, considering what is actually used. How many of the 150 or 200 channels do we watch? Maybe 10 or 12, tops?

That’s just how big media works best. Tell us we need more, when we know we’ll be using less.

Cablevision is going so far as to tell consumers that it is raising its “sports and broadcast” surcharge this year $1, to $5.99 a month.

Meanwhile, DirecTV will be raising its rates on average 6%. The company says this is because of higher programming fees -- in general.

Attempting to couch it in the best possible light, DirecTV says :  “While the networks are increasing their fees to DirecTV by double-digits,we are limiting the price adjustment to customer¹s monthly bill by an average of 5.7%.”. No mention of a la carte pricing/packaging yet.

Which brings us to those proposed cloud-based TV services like those from CBS, HBO, Dish, and Verizon. Is that where “a la carte programming” is going?