When I was a kid - boxing was at perhaps its heyday. Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Mike Tyson. It seemed there was always a big fight but the problem was where to watch it. This was the end of the closed circuit TV era and beginning of the PPV (pay per view) era. Some bars legitimately paid for the signal and charged an entrance fee to make up for the hefty fee. Other bars had a "hot box" and received the signal illegally.
Guess where I watched many of these fights.
Today bars, restaurants, hotel common areas and other places are supposed to pay commercial rates based upon formulas that make string theory algorithms look like child's play. For that reason and because its not a whole lot of money in this bundled channel package world - having cable in these places at the same rates as a residential customer is not really a big deal.
One of the unintended consequences of a la carte TV may be to completely change this.
If Disney can no longer bundle all the ESPN channels together to get a hefty rights package fee then they may need to find other avenues to recoup the costs of buying rights to things like the NFL's Monday Night Football. One of those avenues may be to go after some of these bars and other places that are paying residential rates when they should be paying commercial rates based upon bulk rate pricing and fire code seating and a bunch of other variables.
We could wind up in a world where bars have to charge $7 for a draft beer to cover their TV costs. Or, conversely, we may end up in a world where the bar avoids these rights fees by simply offering free WiFi and people watch what they want on iPads or other tablet-type devices. We may even have scenarios where one person uses a Slingbox to get their signal from home and the bar shows it on a "group projection device" (don't call it a hot box).
Not saying this is what is going to happen. Just saying it is possible.
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