[Alan13446]

Old rant, why I have to pay for what I do not want...
I rarely watch TV, kids grown and gone, marriage ended, so it's just me and the girlfriend, and aside from this or that, not that interested in many of the channels.
So I get basic cable at $30/month, and it does the job.
Ths month, thanks to this forum, I discovered Discovery World HD was on for free, so a little tweak *cough* of the TV and I get it on my LG Plasma.

Not a shabby channel, I say...worth getting....seems I watched Discover World and nothing else, feeding that geek in me.

But wait...I can't get that channel on "basic cable"
I have to:

*get the digital "value pack" for another $19/month
*get the converter box for another $10/month
*pay the hd digital access fee of $6/month

Now(after 1 year, when the promo is over, I am stuck with paying $65/month
(Cogeco Web Site):
For the first 12 months you pay only $54. 98per month
Saving of $10.00per month
After 12 months, your price will be $64.98per month

$37/month, or $450 a year more, just for ONE EXTRA CHANNEL I want!!

Hey, Cogeco, here's $5 extra each month, keep the Discovery World HD on, and we can both be happy!

 

[rlongfield]

I remember one of the big promises made by the cable companies back in the day when they first started talking about the switch to digital signals was that they would be able to offer to consumers an 'a la carte' choice. The consumer would get to pick the channels they wanted. Buy a pack of 10 channels and then select the 10 channels you wanted, the company would tell the receiver which 10 channels you were allowed to watch. Easy Peasy.
Then the cable companies, the channels and the CRTC discovered that if they did that then certain channels would not survive, profits would be down and that isn't good for anyone, well the consumer doesn't count in this equation.

So just how badly do you want Discovery World? Maybe to get your point across call up, order the channel, be outraged at the cost, cancel order or even cancel service, get transferred to retention, keep service at a discount and maybe a few free months of Discovery World to boot?

 

[nakedgord]

It's funny that their concern about profits and keeping all the channels afloat by not bothering to offer channes ala cart may result in all dying if enough customers go with free atsc OTA or TVonDVD or Netflix Canada.

I'd likely still have Cogeco if I could have bought the TMN pack ala cart but since I can't I just got an antenna and started watching the HBO series on disc.