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Many seemed to think so today after a U.S. Appeals Court ruled that Aereo’s streaming service can stay in business while the company defends itself against a suit by broadcasters who say that it violates their copyrights. Broadcasters were among media’s big losers on Wall Street today; for example CBS was -2.2%, Gannett was -3%, and Sinclair was -3.7%. If the courts uphold Aereo’s right to retransmit over-the-air signals without paying stations, then it could derail broadcasters’ hopes of collecting billions each year from pay TV retransmission consent fees. That’s possible, BTIG’s Richard Greenfield says: Today’s decision should cause the major networks to “accept Aereo’s legality and figure out how to deal with the implications to their business.” Considering the scope of the reasoning in the verdict, it’s “difficult to imagine how the broadcasters stand a chance of winning at trial in the District Court later this year or even how they could appeal a District Court loss to this Appellate Court.” As a result, he expects Aereo to accelerate its expansion plans — the service is up in NYC and plans to launch in 22 additional markets this year. (It tweeted last week that a Boston service will come “very, very soon.”) The analyst also says cable and satellite companies likely will now feel emboldened to resist broadcasters’ demands for high fees for their must-have programming while cable networks “look to license content to Aereo.” READ MORE »
Sinclair Stations To Stay On DirecTV While They Work Out Retransmission Deal
Here’s another 11th hour retransmission consent agreement — not a moment too soon for Sinclair, which has its hands full with its new station acquisition deals. The broadcaster recently told DirecTV customers that “… Read More »
Will Gannett’s TV Stations Go Dark On DirecTV?
Here we go again. The biggest independent distributor of NBC programming has begun to air crawls and announcements warning DirecTV subscribers of “the possibility of a signal disruption” after November 30 when the programming carriage agreement for its 23 stations expires. … Read More »
Sinclair Stations Could Go Dark On Dish Network Tonight
UPDATE, 9:10 AM: Sinclair’s angry about Dish’s “corporate greed” charge, and has fired back to “set the record straight.” The broadcaster says that the retransmission consent payments it wants for its stations “are substantially lower than the amounts … Read More »
UPDATE: Time Warner Cable, Meredith TV Extend Retransmission Consent Talks
UPDATE, 7:30PM Wednesday: Time Warner Cable reported tonight the company has agreed to an extension of retransmission consent for Meredith TV stations through July 31. TWC said the two companies “hope to finalize an agreement before … Read More »
Aereo’s Victory Could Eventually Upend Retransmission Consent, Analysts Warn
Wall Street is still buzzing about U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan’s decision yesterday that TV streaming service Aereo can continue to do business while broadcasters — including ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBCUniversal — pursue their copyright infringement suits against it. Had the decision gone the other way “it could have marked the end of Aereo,” Barclays Equity Research’s Anthony DiClemente says this morning. Wells Fargo Securities’ Marci Ryvicker adds that ”The most alarming sentence [in the decision] was: the ‘Plaintiff’s have not shown a likelihood of success [in their copyright case] on the merits’.” She warns that the news could ding stock prices today for major market TV station owners. Aereo, which is backed by IAC’s Barry Diller, takes local over-the-air signals and streams them to subscribers who pay $12 a month. It doesn’t pay anything to the stations themselves. Ryvicker urges investors not to over-react. She has tried Aereo and says it “is NOT a compelling product” due Read More »
Tribune Warns Of “Strong Likelihood” DirecTV Will Lose Its Stations This Sunday
All hell will break loose if there’s isn’t an eleventh-hour settlement — as there usually is in similar cases — to Tribune’s retransmission contract dispute with DirecTV. Tribune says that it will yank its TV stations in 16 markets, … Read More »
Miami-Area Fox Affil Gives Pro Football Fans A Break On Playoff Day
Miami-Fort Lauderdale pro football fans are getting a break tomorrow in the local TV station owner’s retransmission fee feud with DirecTV. Sunbeam Television’s Fox affiliate WSVN is lifting its blackout in DirecTV homes during the NFC championship game between … Read More »
Report: TV Stations Face Cash Flow Woes As Networks Demand Rising Payments
Station groups including Belo, Gray Television, LIN Media, NexStar Broadcasting, and Sinclair Broadcast face a big problem after next year’s elections when the cash from political ads evaporates: Their revenues and cash flow could plummet as they’re forced to … Read More »
Study: Commercial TV And Radio Added $1.17 Trillion To GDP Last Year
Television executives plead poverty when they explain why they need cash from cable companies that retransmit the programs stations broadcast for free. But the industry seems to make a miraculous recovery when the topic changes to the FCC’s effort … Read More »
Cablevision Tells FCC: Let Us Carry Just The TV Networks We Want
No major cable operator hates paying broadcasters for the right to retransmit their free over-the-air programming more than Cablevision. Last year, it allowed ABC and Fox stations to go dark on Cablevision systems while trying to hammer out payment deals. So it’s interesting to see the three-point plan that Cablevision submitted to the FCC today to ensure that subscribers aren’t deprived from seeing the Oscars or the World Series while companies work out their differences.
First, it wants regulators to prevent broadcasters from packaging their services in a way that would require pay TV services to carry cable channels they don’t want in order to land programming from a must-have network such as ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. Second, if the cable operator can’t strike a deal with a network’s local station, then Cablevision wants the freedom to cut deals that would enable it to import signals from out-of-market network affiliates. And, third, Cablevision wants to be able to publicize the fees that broadcasters want. Read More »
Stations Go Dark On Dish In Retrans Spat
A relatively small standoff over retransmission consent will probably get big attention because of its timing. LIN Media’s 17 stations, mostly CBS, Fox and CW affiliates, went dark on Dish Network systems today, just two days after the FCC said … Read More »
Comcast’s E! and Style Face Blackout On Dish Network In Carriage Dispute
UPDATED: The countdown to New Year’s eve is on, and so are the countdowns to a couple of possible channel blackouts as a number of carriage agreements expire at midnight on Dec. 31. Comcast’s E! and Style just issued … Read More »
Disney & TWC Reach Carriage Agreement
The deal came hours after the companies’ previous carriage agreement expired at midnight and days after the two sides announced they had made “significant progress.” The new pact includes carriage of Disney’s new Disney Jr. cable channel, which will replace SoapNet, and of Internet-based network ESPN3.com. Additionally, I hear the deal calls for retransmission consent fees for the 4 ABC O&O stations on TWC systems and fee increases for the existing Disney cable networks covered by the agreement. The new pact also includes expanded VOD services for TWC subscribers but they are not exclusive to the cable company. Here is the joint Disney/TWC release:
September 2, 2010 — BURBANK and NEW YORK— Disney/ABC Television Group, ESPN and Time Warner Cable today entered into a long-term, wide-ranging agreement that will provide Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks cable customers the programming of ABC Family, Disney Channel, Disney XD, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes and SOAPnet, as well as WABC in New York, KABC in Los Angeles, WTVD in Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, WTVG in Toledo, and associated HD cable networks. Subscribers will also have unprecedented digital access to online content and expanded Video On Demand services.
Web Is New Battleground In Carriage Fights
Roll Over Or Get Tough… I Have Choices… Fighting 4 You… All sound like campaign slogans. 
And they are, but not for a political race: they are slogans used by cable companies and networks in more and more public battles … Read More »
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