A La Carte TV Will Never Be

[Commentary] The prospect of consumers getting the ability to choose which cable channels they want has proven to be a remarkably resilient fantasy. Maybe that’s because TV executives can’t seem to resist giving the proposition just enough attention to make it seem possible.

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam described the a la carte business model at the National Assn. of Broadcasters confab earlier this month as “a novel way that could help protect subscriptions in the long run.” An unprecedented antitrust suit filed by Cablevision against Viacom has also renewed speculation. But now is as good a time as any to point out the absurdity inherent in a debate that has raged from Congress to coffee shops going back a decade. A-la-carte channel choice no longer makes a lick of sense in the age of on-demand viewing. A post-bundle world would require a much different environment than the one a la carte fans envision, one that probably draws more on title-oriented platforms like Netflix or iTunes than on TV’s linear lineage.