Will TV bills rise with channel choice? Canada to find out
[...] though you might gripe about paying for all the channels you never watch, the price of each channel could rise a lot if fewer people chose to pay for each one individually.
Millions of U.S. households have dropped big pay TV packages in the past few years and have turned to online services such as Netflix, Hulu and HBO Now.
At first, pay TV providers only have to offer slimmed-down basic package for $25, with theme packs like sports or entertainment channels as add-ons.
Or are you going to pay a hell of a lot more for (sports network) TSN than you thought? says Lawson Hunter, a former Bell Canada executive who has criticized the unbundling plan.
[...] after the surviving channels renegotiated deals with cable operators, consumers had to pay twice as much for each channel.
Unbundling might not be all bad, Rogers CEO Guy Laurence told analysts in January.
Because people can pay less under a la carte, "we may see the return of some people who have left cable TV."