Craig Aaron on Kooky Cable Prices, Corruption and Consolidation
Say you’re a diehard Glee fan. You know the show took a nosedive after season two, you know there are better things you could do with your time, but you still feel compelled to watch and keep up to date on the perpetually combusting Finchel, Klaine and Wemma.
And yes, you could get the show for free online, but Hulu won’t let you watch this particular program for eight days after an episode airs. Eight days! It’s practically a lifetime. So you continue to fork over major bucks to your local cable provider. You get your Glee — along with a lot of other shows and channels you have no intention of ever watching.
“You don’t go to the library to check out a book and they say fine, if you want this book you’re going to have to take out all these other HarperCollins books with it,” Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron told Pacifica Radio station KPFA in a recent interview. “It doesn’t happen and yet here’s this cable system we’ve built where if you want to watch this channel [you have to pay] for all these other channels. That only works if you’ve got a cabal.”
The KPFA interview explores how the cable cabal keeps prices sky-high — and also delves into the Internet, radio and President Obama’s pick for Federal Communications Commission chairman. To get the full scoop, listen here.
And while you’re at it, check out the interviews Craig Aaron did with the Washington Times this week. He tackles the Justice Department’s surveillance of journalists and the impact of runaway media consolidation.