PTC to Verizon: Your “Unbundling” Isn’t Really Unbundling

LOS ANGELES (January 9, 2020) – The Parents Television Council called Verizon’s announcement that it will drop cable bundles a “distinction without a difference,” and urged the company to embrace giving consumers a la carte cable choice.

“Verizon’s announcement that it will drop the requirement for

consumers to purchase full cable bundles in order to access TV and

Internet service still doesn’t give consumers real choice in terms of

programming. While the company may be offering smaller bundles of

network programming, Verizon is just the latest distributor to be

fooling itself about what consumer choice really means. Unless and until

consumers get to pick and choose – and pay for – the television

networks they want to bring into their homes, what they’re proposing is

only a distinction without a difference. The irony is that the network

programmers are increasingly offering their own content on an a la carte

basis via apps and other subscription services, yet they prohibit the

cable, satellite and telco distributors from having the ability to sell

networks on an a la carte basis. As long as customers are forced to pay

for bundles of unwanted networks, cords will continue to be cut,” said

PTC President Tim Winter.