• Multichannel News, Monday, June 4, 2007 10 AM

About half of the 5,000 consumers surveyed last year support a la carte pricing of cable TV services, according to Forrester Research, but they tend to have unrealistic expectations of what it might cost. Many respondents said they would want a package of 26 channels at $24 per month, roughly half of what they currently pay for a typical expanded-basic package. That also breaks down to 10 cents per viewing hour per week -- and that can't support program development or delivery as cable viewers currently spend about 22 cents per viewing hour.

Forrester analyst James McQuivey points out that that Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin is a supporter of a la carte and says it would also help parents edit violent content out of their homes while saving money. But McQuivey says the survey doesn't support that idea, as viewers who said their households were heavy watchers of Disney Channel and Nickelodeon also spent a lot of time with more adult content, such as Spike TV or Comedy Central.

"Even if they were offered a la carte, they'd choose channels cited as problems. So using violence as a pretext [for a la carte pricing] doesn't hold water," he says.

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