"It's crazy and unsustainable," Cornelius said in a statement, "If gas prices
did that, a tank of gas would go from about $30.00 to about $70.00."
And if gasoline were a local monopoly, and furthermore not essential, so
nothing for regulators to worry about, your gas station could do just that. The
problem is the local monopoly situation. The rest is entirely to be expected.
No worries. By 2020, even slow luddites will start to wake up. Options are
available today. The cable industries main role is becoming telecoms, which is
indeed an essential role.
Bert
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http://www.multichannel.com/news/cable-operators/aca-members-believe-retrans-fees-will-rise-88-2020/418199
ACA Members Believe Retrans Fees Will Rise 88% by 2020
Survey says small ops paying $11 per sub, per month in 2017
2/16/2018 3:49 PM Eastern
By: Mike Farrell
Retransmission consent fees are expected to rise an average of 88% by 2020 for
small cable operators, according to a survey by the American Cable Association.
ACA, long an opponent of retrans regulations, surveyed its own membership and
found that on average, they paid about $11 per month per subscriber in
retransmission consent fees in 2017. That amount is expected to rise to $19 per
subscriber per month by 2020.
Nearly a quarter of those surveyed will see a drastic jump of at least 100% in
fees in the next three years, and in one case that increase is expected to be
302%.
In response, the National Association of Broadcasters cited Kagan data that
shows the pace of retrans increases have slowed significantly overall in the
past several years from about 65% in 2010 to 10% in 2018. And they pointed to
other Kagan data showing that retrans is still a small part - about one-sixth -
of overall programming costs. In addition, broadcast ratings generally exceed
that of cable channels, the NAB says.
But the gist of the ACA survey is that small operators copntinue to bear most
of the burden of retrans increases. According to the organization, retrans fees
are the fastest growing part of customers' cable bills, adding that in some
cases, cable subscribers across the country could see up to $15 in retrans fees
added to their monthly cable bills by 2020.
"This is distressing," said ACA president and CEO Matt Polka in a statement.
"Corporate broadcasters have become increasingly aggressive over the years in
charging for retransmission consent, and it's clear that they have no
reservations taking escalating amounts of money from consumers to line their
pockets."
ACA included comments from some of its membership about the impact of retrans
on their operations.
For example, Citizens Telephone & Cable president Brian Cornelius claimed under
his current retrans agreements, charges will rise about 105% over the next
three years, or about 50 times the rate of inflation. Citizens offers service
in Higginsville, Corder and Mayview, Missouri.
"It's crazy and unsustainable," Cornelius said in a statement, "If gas prices
did that, a tank of gas would go from about $30.00 to about $70.00."
In December 2017, Citizens was paying $8.53 per subscriber per month in
retransmission fees. This month broadcasters increased those fees to $14.65 per
subscriber per month - a 72% increase.
They also refused to allow Citizens Telephone & Cablevision to offer a
broadcast-free cable package, which would have allowed customers to opt to use
an antenna in an effort to reduce their rates, according to the ACA.
Harrisonville Telephone Co., which operates in Monroe, Randolph and St. Clair
counties in Illinois, said this year it has experienced retrans rate increases
of more than 100%. In 2016, the company claims it was forced to carry multicast
channels or be in direct violation of the local broadcast retransmission
agreement.
"The corporate broadcasters are out of control," Polka said in a statement. "No
other industry operates this way. No other sector would get away with such
massive price increases in just three years. Why is this okay? Quite simply,
it is not, and consumers should not have to pay the bill for something
Washington should have changed years, if not decades, ago."
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