The current CBS/Time Warner fiasco highlights the inadequacies of the tier-based system of pricing plans in this digital age. Were customers allowed to subscribe/unsubscribe to channels on an individual basis, any time a network implements a price hike the carrier could simply pass the price to the subsciber who in turn could vote with their wallet by unsubscibing to that channel. This would also prevent subscribers that pay explicitly for premium channels from suffering from retalitory practices due to carriers dropping channels related to the original controversial network (such as Showtime in the CBS/TWC case). Forcing tier-based plans on consumers in anti-competetive and should be abolished.



