The bottom line here is that for any subscriber who wants to keep Turner Classic Movies, someone has just reached out and taken a bit over $120 out of your pocket, to be collected over the course of a year. You'll get nothing in return that you didn't have already except for a sports package that you probably didn't want to begin with — but that does allow it to be asserted that you did in fact get something, and did in fact want it or you wouldn't have ordered it. Complain all you want, but your only real alternative is to forget about the thing you want to keep.
Somebody mentioned the FCC. Forget about that, too. The pitch for regulatory rollback was that competition would result in better things at lower prices — which of course was only another story. Besides, when you order the Sports and Entertainment package to keep your TMC, the government gets a cut of the take that comes to something just under $1 per month per person. There are additional fees and taxes associated with this package.
How many subscribers nation-wide want TCM? As of 2003, TCM reached 63 million homes. Let's estimate 1 million subscribers nationwide are TCM fans who want to keep it. Do the arithmetic. This minor rearrangement could pull in around $120,000,000 per year, with minimal related costs over what the company was already paying. Somebody may get a bonus. For my $120, I have gotten an elevated level of cynicism.
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