Editor's Letter: Whose Family?

Cable World,  June 20, 2005  

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By John P. Ourand

By virtually all accounts, a la carte is dead. It has no industry support. It has no congressional support. And it hasn't been talked about inside the Beltway for months.

That doesn't mean that cable's in the clear. Many of the arguments used to support a la carte are being applied to family tiers now. Consumers want access to programming that is not indecent. If cable can set up sports tiers and ethnic tiers, then it should be easy enough to set up tiers of family-friendly programming.

The problem is that family tiers are just as unworkable.

First there's the question of figuring out what constitutes a "family" channel. I have three young children; the oldest will be 6 this summer. Family programming looks radically different to me than it does to parents of teenagers.

Take Cartoon Network and Toon Disney, for example. On the surface, these two kids channels are perfect for family tiers. Well, I don't want my family tier to have Cartoon's Adult Swim block or Toon Disney's violent Power Rangers (which already is banned in my house).

Sports should be a natural fit. My kids sometimes watch the first couple of innings of the Nationals before bedtime. But I don't want ESPN's Playmakers or Tilt on my family tier. I want my kids to be informed, but I'll be damned if I get a family tier with any of those cable news networks.

Then there's the question of whether programmers even want to be placed on such a tier. For example, Discovery and A&E should be ideal networks for a family tier. But both networks are skewing toward younger adults and getting hipper. Do you think either wants to be relegated to a "family" tier right now? Definitely not.

My bet is that family tiers will go the same route as a la carte, which lawmakers eventually realized was completely unworkable.

Cable needs to take the same approach with family tiers. The industry needs to keep showing lawmakers how difficult the process of developing such tiers is. Ask regulators to come up with their own versions, and show them how they won't work.

Undoubtedly, they'll want to put National Geographic Channel on a family tier. But if you put Nat Geo on, then you'll have to put Discovery on it because they both have documentaries. And if you put Discovery on it, then you'll have to put A&E on it because they compete for similar viewers. And if you put A&E on it, then you'll have to add Bravo because they both cover the arts. And if you put Bravo on it, then you can make a case that E! should be included because of its focus on Hollywood. And if you put E! on a family tier...well, that may just presage the end of civilization as we know it.

[Copyright 2005 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved.]

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