[opendtv] Re: News: Northwest Station Pulls Signal In Retransmission Battle
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 14:46:23 -0500
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> The existing retransmission consent agreement is about to
> expire, so the station and cable companies begin to negotiate.
> At first the station's demands are high but not obscene. The
> cable companies say no, but the timing is not "just right," so
> the station issues an extension of the expiring agreement.
> They continue to negotiate, now with the station increasing
> its demands. The cable guys still say no, but NOW, the station
> has some leverage; the college bowl season is about to begin,
> and the station will be carrying most of the BCS championship
> games, including the national championship game. So they elect
> to pull their signals to put consumer pressure on the cable
> companies to capitulate.
But this is standard business practice, Craig. The way this should work
is that consumers should have alternative means to get to that content,
via competing distribution media, and it turns out one of those is FOTA
TV. If there's anything out of kilter here, it's that the umbillical
media, and possibly also the broadcasters, seem to think that demand for
umbillical TV distribution services is completely inelastic. As long as
the programming *is* available FOTA, from the broadcasters, I just can't
get all worked up over any of this.
The piece claims that the amount asked for is not that big:
"Neither side will say how much KAYU is seeking, but the station says it
is asking for fees smaller than what cable companies pay many cable
channels for the right to carry their programming."
All I can say here is "boo hoo." The only bad guys in all of this are
the consumers who cave in, instead of taking alternatives that are
already available to them.
You know, the same thing as consumers who get all sanctimonious about
global warming while driving their Ford Expeditions. Boo hoo. They read
Al Gore's book and feel somehow absolved of sin.
Bert
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts: