Here in Toledo, the local cable provider, Buckeye CableSystem, was asked to stop airing the broadcasts of the local Fox affiliate, WUPW. The reason is because WUPW claims Buckeye has refused to pay the proper licensing fee.
Here's where it gets tricky...
In April 2012, WUPW negotiated with WTOL to let WTOL handle WUPW's news. Apparently, this is quite common these days (new since I left the business about a decade ago). Anyway, stations that have done this typically demand the folks who air their content to pay the same fee for both stations.
The problem with this is that WTOL routinely gets 4% of the market share, while WUPW gets 1%, and is one of the lowest rated stations in the area. So for WTOL and WUPW to claim Buckeye should pay the same for both just because they share a re-transmission agreement is...shady.
Buckeye, to its credit, has refused, and has already taken the matter to court. Soon, they'll be arguing about it in federal court, and Buckeye has already begun a public campaign asking Congress to put a stop to this tactic. Obviously, their profits get hurt, but they also correctly point out that, in the end, the consumer is the one paying the most since the costs are always passed onto them.
What's even more interesting about this is the FCC says no one company can own more than one TV station in any given market. WUPW is owned by American Spirit, while WTOL is owned by Raycom Media. However, their argument to Buckeye would mean Buckeye pay them as a single entity...that's a problem. It's something that wasn't foreseen by the FCC, and needs to be looked at now.
They even called it a merger when it happened...
Good article saying basically what I just said above.
Meanwhile, the issue of local TV rights has potential to burst for MLB.
Now none of these articles get into it, but isn't the damn about to burst, somewhere?
Cable bills are at record highs, and we're not even talking about internet or home phone service (which that part is on it's way down and out). We're in an economy that is shaky at best. Where our taxes are about to go up again. Where the cost of living is ever climbing, while wages are slowly climbing by cents at best, and jobs are being lost everywhere. Where states are on the brink of financial collapse. Where the cell phone, and more importantly, the smart phone, has replaced the old analog phone. Where the PC/internet is taking more and more of our time, and taking us away from the TV. Where Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, OnDemand, RedBox, etc. are all offering us alternatives to TV or giving us better options to watching shows aired at specific times and filled with commercials, get pre-empted by sports or politics, get interrupted by weather alerts, get fucked up by DVR boxes being full or the timing of the stations being off, etc.
People are already ditching DISH, cable (except internet service), and other similar outlets due to their already ridiculously high rates. At what point does this all start to blow up, and the system begin to crumble?
As the Grantland article points out, at some point, the cost will be too much for most customers. So what does the future hold, a lowering of rates across the board, an exodus of people off cable, new pricing models that allow customers to choose what they want to pay for and watch, or something else? How bad will the fallout be when people stop paying for a lot of these channels? Will we lose the GameShow network and other shit channels? Will sports teams lose an important source of revenue, thus making them raise prices elsewhere or lower salaries for players?
Granted, this isn't going to happen overnight, but it's an interesting thing to keep your eye on.
The brewing storm over TV licensing
The cable TV market is going the way of the Blockbuster market. Maybe not as quickly, maybe more volume, but the same shit's killing it. The "On Demand" service offered by the local Comcast up here is as lame as Blockbuster's half-assed attempt at competing with Netflix. Comcast on-demand still charges per show up here. Fuck forbid you could buy an entire season of something up front or have a scalable pricing model. Those shows also self-delete after 1-2 days. Cable's carcass will rot with the rest of the dinosaurs.
EDIT: I'd like nothing more than to see cable TV fucking die because of all the horrid reality programming they've got on the schedule nowadays. That isn't TV anymore, it's walking around with normal assholes in artificially charged situations. The Learning Channel carries Here Comes fucking Honey Boo Boo. Learning.
Edited By Malcolm on 1357171521
EDIT: I'd like nothing more than to see cable TV fucking die because of all the horrid reality programming they've got on the schedule nowadays. That isn't TV anymore, it's walking around with normal assholes in artificially charged situations. The Learning Channel carries Here Comes fucking Honey Boo Boo. Learning.
Edited By Malcolm on 1357171521
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
What concerns me about the new technology I love, Netflix-type services, is that the medium it is challenging, cable tv, controls the very pipes through which I get my broadband internet. They aren't going to put themselves out of business, and I worry they will restrict the new tech before they adapt the old to a new market.
This is America; they have the legislators bought and paid for already.
This is America; they have the legislators bought and paid for already.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Yeah, and liberals have vilified those tea partiers by, "rich white guys didn't want to pay their taxes." In the Free Candy society, there aint no more successful tea parties.Malcolm wrote:We've tossed tea overboard before. We have digital piracy now.... they have the legislators bought and paid for already.
I've been saying for years that it will take bloodshed to change anything in this country. Probably following skyrocketing inflation, and welfare checks skipping a month or 5.
Reagan's gone, and the media will never, ever let another one win.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
People are already ditching DISH, cable (except internet service), and other similar outlets due to their already ridiculously high rates. At what point does this all start to blow up, and the system begin to crumble?
By the end of 2013 all cable companies that aren't in the process of transitioning into and ISP will start to talk about probably going out of business soon. By the end of 2015 there will be no pure cable companies left; all of them will be heavily into the ISP business. By 2025 the concept of cable company as we now know it will be history, they will be ISP companies that may also still provide some TV services for elderly customers.
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
Buckeye Cablesystem was recently, not sure if it holds true anymore, the fastest ISP in the nation at 150 MB down.
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell