A&E is the perfect example of why cable stations should all be à la carte.

[onehandle]

I don't want to support yet another racist, misogynistic channel of hate mongering.

But there it is in our cable package.

[get the red out]

1. Yep

And there are Chanel's we don't get and would have enjoied more even before the exposure of this moron.

[SharonAnn]

52. I don't want to pay for sports channels, religion shows, shopping channels, or "adult channels"

I have an incredible number of sports channels, religious channels, and shopping channels in my "package" to get the few channels I really want.

[FatBuddy]

2. it used to stand for "Arts and Entertainment"

and it actually used to broadcast Arty and Entertaining programming.

go figure.

[Warpy]

6. Now it's Assholes and Egomaniacs

Once in a blue moon they'll run a movie. Otherwise, it's one of those stations I skip past when I'm looking for something to watch.

For the last few days, they've been duck call, all the time. I think they're going to kill it by overexposure whether or not that's the plan.

[cyberswede]

8. OMG - "Assholes and Egomaniacs"

You are so right! It's actually painful to see how A&E has declined.

[meow2u3]

38. Assholes and Egomaniacs is right

A DUzy for you!

[Jamaal510]

23. Just like TLC is supposedly an acronym for "The Learning Channel",

even though there is arguably very little educational about it.

[FatBuddy]

29. i think it was initially funded by nasa

[pipoman]

3. cable companies track channel usage..

Don't watch the channel. .

[iandhr]

5. Exactly

The reason why sports channels are the most expensive is due to the popularity of sports.

[Curmudgeoness]

26. Another great reason for a la carte!

They say that most of the cost of cable goes to the sports channels. Since I never watch any sports, I am sure that I would pay a lot less for the "cable without sports networks" package. Until then, I am free TV only.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

50. I'm wondering how many of those complaining the most ever watched in the first place.

[brewens]

4. C'mon man! You can't rely of the free market as far as tv programming goes!

Kind of goes to show you that's not what right-wingers are really about. When they can have monopolies, to hell with the free market! There was just some asshole on C-SPAN2 this morning going off on what a bad deal a la carte selection would be for everyone. I think he was with ESPN.

I just cut back DISH from Americas Top 200 to 120 so I could bundle DISHnet. That lets me cut Cableone's internet service and my bill in half for at least the first year. No matter what they try and tell me, I bet if I got a good al a carte selection, I'd end up with what I really like to watch and save even more money. I'd probably only have 30 channels but if that got me all the good stuff for a fair price, they can keep all the junk.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. With a whole bunch of cable stations owned by Disney...

the broadcast networks or other media giants, packaging is what you get.

I hate sports, but I have to pay at least 5 bucks a month more because the NFL and NBA, backed by sports channels said either everyone pays for them or sports lovers pay 30-50 bucks a month for them. Guess what Cablevision thought was an acceptable spreading of the pain... I think they threw in a soccer channel for nothing. Or was it hockey?

A la carte would be great, but we'll never see it until packages are out.

BTW, I heard today that cable installations are down by 5%-- people are going without or getting it over the internet.

[zeemike]

9. Cut the cable...that is the answer.

And when they want to know why or try to get you back tell them why.
You really don't need them they need you and your money.
I got rid of cable years ago, and at first I admit I missed it, but now I would not bother with the constant changing channels to find something I wanted to see...and usually settlings for shit instead...and I realized what a big waste of time it really was.

[ElboRuum]

10. Not just A&E...

Both Discovery and History Channels have gone full Reality Fucknuttery. You have to get the extended cable to get Science and H2 to get what they used to show on Discovery and History.

[awoke_in_2003]

25. And those will be ruined soon. nt

[kelliekat44]

11. Hear, hear!!!! nt

[rrneck]

12. One of the biggest opponents of a la carte

is religion. They have to be in the package or nobody would sign up for it.

[Mr.Bill]

15. Same thing with

infomercial and shopping channels.

[Trekologer]

42. Those channels typically either give it away for free or pay the cable/satellite companies to carry

[Pretzel_Warrior]

13. I absolutely think consumer groups should continue to lobby

For that very thing. If someone wants to buy a bundled package--great! But they should also allow users who only like channels x, y, and z to only buy those.

Hopefully convergence of technologies will force the issue.

[Throd]

14. I resent all those jewelry/buck knife/coin channels clogging up my remote.

[WillowTree]

30. So block them.

[Throd]

33. I'd rather just choose the eleven I want, rather than block to 358 I don't.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

32. yep. I think this is a universal gripe. I used to program my channels

so it would only go to the channels I actually want to visit. Guess I'll have to do that again if I ever subscribe to cable/satellite.

[westerebus]

16. zactly! n/t

[SCVDem]

17. DirecTv

We get 733 out of 754 channels.

My favorites are 75 channels.

What the hell am I paying for

I have no A&E or any Faux on my list but I do have NASA.

I would prefer ala carte!

[kcr]

18. Cable goes a la carte, say goodbye to NASA

Although, I find myself making this argument with less enthusiasm these days, because of crap like Duck Dynasty. NASA is one of the few channels that have stayed true to its original programming intent. THey've almost all become vehicles for reality TV trash.

[SCVDem]

21. Where's the Discovery

in The Discovery channel?

SyFy has WWE?

[kcr]

22. Yes, exactly.

Even Animal Planet is starting to show non animal related programming.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

34. they could include channels like NASA for FREE. then you buy a channel like ESPN....you get 3 or 4

free channels. It should work that way.

[kcr]

35. I agree, but I doubt it would work like that.

They would just cut the channels no one wants, raise the prices on the ones people do, and we'll all end up paying the same amount we do now for fewer channels of ESPN and Duck Dynasty crap.

[madinmaryland]

24. I have NSA, also. They view everything I am watching!!

[frazzled]

19. The sad thing is ...

This is the kind of drek channel people would buy.

Let's not kid ourselves. A&E started out as an arts and culture channel, a commercial alternative to PBS, but eventually realized people didn't want to watch Leonard Bernstein's Fidelio, Biography, Breakfast with the Arts, or a specially commissioned Horatio Hornblower. They didn't even want to see Sidney Lumet's 100 Centre Street.

So in 2002 they switched to a "reality" format, with such crap as Growing Up Gotti and Criss Angel Mindfreak.

That's apparently what people want.

Back in the 1990s, A&E was producing or co-producing high-toned miniseries:

Pride and Prejudice (1995)
Emma (1996)
Jane Eyre (1997)
The Pale Horse (1997)
The Ebb-Tide (1998)
Tess of the D'Urberviles (1998)
Vanity Fair (1998)
Murder in a Small Town (1999)
The Lady in Question (1999)
P.T. Barnum (1999)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1999)
Small Vices (1999)
The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2000)
The Great Gatsby (2000)
Longitude (2000)
Lorna Doone (2000)
Thin Air (2000)
The Lost Battalion (2001)
The Lost World (2001)
Victoria & Albert (2001)
Walking Shadow (2001)
Lathe of Heaven (2002)
The Magnificent Ambersons (2002)
Napoléon (2002)
Shackleton (2002)
Benedict Arnold: A Question of Honor (2003)
The Mayor of Casterbridge (2003)

Now Duck Dynasty is a huge hit. Don't underestimate the depths to which we've fallen in this country. And if we want to change this culture we have to demand it. We have to say we want good dramas (networks like AMC are starting to respond), uplifting entertainment instead of reality pap. If the Duck Dynasty people shout louder, they win.

[Curmudgeoness]

27. That reminds me of how much I liked A&E.

I watched Biography all the time, even when it is someone I couldn't care less about....it was always interesting.

And their Pride and Prejudice was the most accurate and well done version I have ever seen. (One of my favorite books that I just thought could never be a movie.) They did so many of those miniseries well.

I miss all that. I guess there were just not enough of us who enjoyed those shows.

[House of Roberts]

31. AMC used to be American Movie Classics.

Now I watch maybe 50 movies on Turner Classic Movies to each one I watch on AMC. I watched Lawrence Of Arabia last night, all four hours of it. I never watch series anymore except for Doctor Who and Torchwood on BBCAm.

[cprise]

41. We have to change the business culture, first

Break up the media conglomerates. Put limits on market share and cross-ownership for the fourth estate.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

47. A&E, History, Discovery, and the others began going downhill

when they were acquired by new owners in 2002.

Little by little, they replaced the existing programming with garbage. For a while, their website was inundated with protests. By the time they committed their last indignity (removing MI-5 about 1/3 of the way through the fourth season), they had stopped accepting comments on their website.

They knew what they were doing and didn't care.

BBC America did something similar, when it dropped most of its dramas and comedies and replaced them with reruns of American shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Dancing with the Stars. Again, protests on their website, but they no longer accept correspondence on their website.

[frazzled]

48. Fortunately, I think the cable model of programming is dying

And these folks know it. That's why they're going for the cheapest crap they can still sell to Comcast or DirecTV while they wait for the patient to die.

Already, almost none of the people under 35 I know even purchase cable or satellite. I wouldn't either, but for the fact that our condo association decided some years ago to buy in bulk for the building and charge us on our monthly assessment. We pay $27 a month. When they considered changing providers a few years ago, I said why bother--it's going to be defunct soon anyway.

People are beginning to stream what they want: not channels but individual programs. Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime, etc. are the new models. In a way, that's sad, too, because there won't be a common culture at all, just everyone going off into their individual tribal corners. But I guess that horse left the barn some years ago.

I remember when cable was first being conceived--it was going to be the savior of the culture, a great McCluhan moment with cable access and revolutionary programming. Hello, that didn't work out so well.

Ever feel like it's the 16th century and we're waiting for the Enlightenment?

[moblsv]

20. Fox "News"

I cancelled years ago when Dish Network added Fox. Will not return until I have a choice in which organizations my money goes to support.

[Auggie]

28. Pretty sure a la carte would cost more per channel, but I'd be okay with that ...

if it lowered the overall cable bill.

[WillowTree]

36. It won't. It'll have the opposite effect.

You can be sure of it.

[Auggie]

49. Not according to the L.A. Times. And it would kill smaller channels.

Consumers want to choose the channels they get from their pay-TV providers but such a move would not only undermine the business model for media companies, it could also lead to higher prices for customers, according to a new report by Needham & Co.

… the economic costs would be enormous because so many smaller channels would disappear -- at least 124 channels -- wiping out an estimated 1.4 million jobs in media.

The Needham report estimates that it costs media companies an average of $280 million annually to run an entertainment cable channel. (The costs to program a sports channel -- with big-ticket sports -- are much higher).

That means a channel requires at least 165,000 viewers over the course of a year to break even.

LINK: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-a-la-carte-pricing-would-cost-billions-of-dollars-20131204,0,4355658.story#axzz2p41GSw5h

[tabasco]

37. Turn that shit off.

'nuff said.

[SCVDem]

40. You're not housebound

broke with no extended unemployment.

I'm losing my mind with the tv.

Going TV off just isn't a sane option.

[PatrynXX]

39. Animal Network still trying

but between Redneck animal catchers and big Foot where am I going with this. I have no idea. AMC?? hahahahahhahahaha. what classics?

[bigwillq]

43. I've longed wish for this (nt)

[SoapBox]

44. Our household absolutely agrees!

[oberliner]

45. Used to be known for Biography

I always thought that was a great series. In fact, I wasn't aware that they weren't mostly focused on that sort of thing anymore.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

46. If you don't need or want sports channels, there's no reason not to cut the cord

If you live in or near a city, chances are that you can get broadcast channels over the air in HD.

I watch PBS and ME TV (reruns of shows from the 1950s-1970s) over the air, as well as Netflix, Hulu Plus, MHz Worldview, and Acorn TV via streaming on my Roku. Everything worth seeing eventually shows up on one of these services, and recently, Hulu Plus has acquired a huge treasure trove of British, Canadian, and Australian programming.

I need broadband Internet anyway for my work, and the three paid streaming services add $21 a month.

[sufrommich]

51. A la carte would kill most of the

watchable channels. A quick look at the ratings for cable is the proof,no more BBC America,IFC,Sundance,my personal favorite TCM,all replaced by reality shows and Honey Boo Boo knockoffs. No thanks.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

56. So they say, but in fact, a la carte exists in other countries

and it has NOT killed off their intelligent channels.

That's just the excuse that cable company owners give, because they are deliberately trying to dumb down the American people.

[SummerSnow]

53. I would love a cable company that..

allows you to pick which channels you want. But that will never happen.

[sendero]

54. I will not buy cable or satellite again.

.... until I can get only the channels I want.

I'm not paying for the 80% - drivel on the airwaves and if people stopped subsidizing this SHIT it would go away.

[openfield]

57. It is indeed shit

Even the big 3 news outfits, for the most part just a bunch of manipulative, dumbing down, crap.

[sendero]

58. 24/7 propaganda...

.... is all you will get from 99% of TV "news".

Welcome to DU

[workinclasszero]

55. Arts and Entertainment what a joke

Now A&E broadcasts a show featuring a pedophile racist cult leader who wants to persecute gay people.

I just wonder where is the outrage against this POS network? That repig Rush has progressive groups fighting him, why is A&E getting a pass? They are just as bad, if not worse.