With the news that a cable company is suing Viacom over bundling a bunch of crappy channels nobody wants with the stuff that does get watched, here’s The Boss weighing in:
Now I know this is largely bs…
The manner in which Viacom sells its programming is illegal, anti-consumer, and wrong. Viacom effectively forces Cablevision’s customers to pay for and receive little-watched channels in order to get the channels they actually want. Viacom’s abuse of its market power is not only illegal, but also prevents Cablevision from delivering the programming that its customers want and that competes with Viacom’s less popular channels.
… because, let’s face it, if Cablevision were to succeed, it would pocket most of the savings as opposed to passing them on – this is a cable company we’re talking about here, right? – but you’ve got to start somewhere. If nothing else, the rhetoric promises to be fun to watch.