A la Carte Is the Worst Idea Anyone Has Ever Had

During earnings calls among the major networks last week, there was a consistent refrain: a la carte may be in the news, but it's not on the horizon. Most CEOs simply took questions about a la carte the same way they take all dumb questions: as invitations to discuss their networks' innate superiority to the competition.

Your cable bill is basically socialism. Everybody chips in, and then everybody gets to watch what they want to watch, and everybody pays for a bunch of channels they don't care about. Cable bills are high and will remain high; it's because there aren't any new customers entering the market, so cable providers have to increase earnings in other ways. Time Warner Cable’s own COO Rob Marcus told Bloomberg that the company plans to provide “fewer channels and fewer features.” But rest assured, if you want to pay for your cable channels individually, you will end up paying a ton more.