Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - The Progress & Freedom Foundation Blog

Speaking of a la carte

The local newspaper has a story today on the movement to mandate cable "a la carte pricing." The mandate, championed by Senator McCain and various "consumer" groups, would have government require cable be turned into a tapas bar -- small, expensive portions -- instead of its current, all-American "all-you-can eat" packaging. The story is slightly sympathetic to the a la carte side of the story. Still, no one has better addressed the underlying economic issue than Stuart Buck, who eloquently explains bundling as a means to effectuate price discrimination, a necessary move in a high fixed, low marginal cost industry.

posted by Ray Gifford @ 2:07 AM | General