The a la Carte Conundrum: How Much Would You Pay for These Channels?

[Commentary] It should be no surprise that most Americans say they would prefer to create their own television bundle by picking and choosing which networks are included from an a la carte menu. A recent poll from Reuters/Ipsos found that 77 percent of Americans would like "a la carte pricing." The 23 percent minority is probably concerned that the price for individual channels would rise too high for their wallets. Fortunately, the pollsters were also curious to see how much people would be willing to pay for certain networks individually.

Surprisingly, many respondents understood just how much it would cost for their favorite channels in an a la carte model. In fact, based on the poll results, a certain subset of networks could be better off going a la carte: cable news networks such as Time Warner's CNN, Twenty-First Century Fox's Fox News, and Comcast subsidiary NBC/Universal's MSNBC. The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 46 percent of respondents would spend as much as $10 per month for these three networks. That is a pretty significant jump from the rates the companies currently charge cable companies to carry their channels to all 100 million or so pay-TV subscribers.