Pollster Zogby Interactive said a survey of cable subscribers found 52% would prefer to buy only the channels they want, while 35% prefer the current bulk package system.
But while 82% in the poll said cable TV is too expensive, only 39% believe an a la carte system would save them money. Zogby said 37% believe an a la carte regime would be more expensive for them.
Zogby said 71% of respondents don’t like paying for channels they don’t watch.
The survey, released Oct. 23, bolsters the view of Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin, who has tried to implement a la carte channel sales.
While programmers say niche networks wouldn’t get seen under an a la carte regime, that wasn’t worrisome to the cable subscribers Zogby said it polled: 52% said that wasn’t a big concern. But Zogby said 42% were concerned that less-popular networks would be lost under an a la carte regime.
Zogby said it did an online survey of 3,254 adult cable subscribers nationwide from Sept. 25-27, 2007, a survey with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.
