Do you use every single thing at the gym every single time and for the same duration? Why you should stop complaining about your TV channels.

Joe Marchese over at MediaPost is also explaining why you don't want you pay-TV provider to be forced to give you only the TV channels you want, and is putting the economics of scale into perspective in terms of what is at work with the product and service.

"Why You Should Shut Up and Love Your Cable Bundle" explains, using a gym and gym equipment analogy, why DStv subscribers who are outraged about getting The Home Channel when all you want is your horse races on the SuperSport 4 channel from MultiChoice, should think a bit about what they're really asking and what the consequences will be.

I've maintained, and still believe, that consumers and pay-TV subscribers clamoring for "let me choose the TV channels I want" should be careful what they wish for - they will end up ironically paying more for less TV content, instead of getting a cheaper deal which isn't really even possible.

Read this article, read other articles, read widely, study and really educate yourself about the econometrics of subscription television.

Read about how and where the content originates from, how the TV content generation, content flow and distribution works and how its interlinked and how it is possible for a pay-TV operator to bring you multiple pay-TV channels in the first place because of a business model.

Some pay TV-subscribers insist on wanting to "break" the business model. My belief is that they will do so at their own peril.

Whose side am I on as a journalist and a TV critic? MultiChoice's side? On Digital Media (ODM) and StarTimes' side?

I'm on the ordinary consumer and pay-TV subscriber's side - the consumer who rightly or wrongly thinks he or she is paying too much for pay-TV and naturally thinks it will be cheaper to select and pay for just the channels he or she wants.

Counter-intuitively, the irony is that people who ask to do that, will end up paying more, not less for the privilege of selecting only individual TV channels (if that content separation should ever happen or be possible), and that is not in the best interest of the basic consumer and TV viewer.