Pollster Zogby Interactive said a survey of cable subscribers found 52% would prefer to buy only the channels they want, while 35% prefer the current bulk package system.
But while 82% in the poll said cable TV is too expensive, only 39% believe an a la carte system would save them money. Zogby said 37% believe an a la carte regime would be more expensive for them.
Zogby said 71% of respondents don’t like paying for channels they don’t watch.
Article continues belowThe survey, released Oct. 23, bolsters the view of Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin, who has tried to implement a la carte channel sales.
While programmers say niche networks wouldn’t get seen under an a la carte regime, that wasn’t worrisome to the cable subscribers Zogby said it polled: 52% said that wasn’t a big concern. But Zogby said 42% were concerned that less-popular networks would be lost under an a la carte regime.
Zogby said it did an online survey of 3,254 adult cable subscribers nationwide from Sept. 25-27, 2007, a survey with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.
