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BY MIKE HOBAN | Saturday, April 05, 2008 | (No comments posted.)
With the cable companies and satellite dish providers spending mass quantities of advertising dollars desperately trying to distinguish their look-alike products and services, has it occurred to anyone at those companies that they should offer a true pay-to-play option to us, the consumers?
Like many other businesses and industries, it's time for them to get creative and think outside of their tired, old business models. It also would greatly benefit us -- the customers.
Cable/satellite companies offer several levels of the "all-you-can-eat buffet" plan. Pay $15 or $70 or whatever and you have x number of channels at your disposal to watch as much or as little as you like. For some people -- especially TV-aholics who watch three to five hours a day -- that's a good deal.
Cell phone plans also have moved in that direction.
However, for other goods and services, like electricity, natural gas, gasoline or food at the cafeteria or deli counter, most of us truly pay for what we use. The product is metered. We choose how much we use and pay for that amount.
You'd think that some wise soul at a cable or satellite company would figure out that if they offered a metered option as well as the traditional buffet, they could make a lot of money from people like me who don't watch enough TV to want to pay $70 a month, but who would watch more and would be willing to pay for it if we were able to choose.
Sure, there have been countless proposals for cable "choice," all of which have been shot down either by the government or by the industry. But "choice" in that case simply means giving customers the option of dropping unwanted channels that are bundled into the buffet packages.
Metering goes way beyond that concept of "choice." It also goes way beyond pay-per-view, which is offered for special events, but which still hooks you into paying for an event regardless of whether you watch it.
True pay-for-use means you could watch ESPN whenever you want, but you'd pay for each minute of use. Want to occasionally watch John Stewart's "The Daily Show" but not much else on the Comedy Channel? Do it and pay for your viewing time only. Don't want the Golf Channel? Great. Don't watch it and don't pay for it.
Chances are the cable/satellite companies would lose some revenue from "buffet" customers, who would switch to the true choice and personal control of a metered pay-for-use system, but there likely would be much more revenue generated by all of the basic service customers (like your columnist) who would pay more for things they wanted.
Some companies have discovered the pay-for-use philosophy and use it to increase profits at the expense of their customers. The airlines and their recent push to charge customers for a second piece of luggage comes to mind. That's the dark side of pay-for-use.
It's possible, though -- like the immodest proposal introduced above -- to use it in a win-win strategy.
Opinions expressed solely are those of the writer. Mike Hoban, of Crown Point, is a senior consultant for an international leadership development and training firm. Send mail to him c/o The Times, or e-mail him at business-at-large@sbcglobal.net.
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