You are viewing the archive: “Retransmission Consent Rules”

Sinclair Stations Could Go Dark On Dish Network Tonight

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday August 14, 2012 @ 6:55am PDTTags: Dish Network, Retransmission Consent Fees, Retransmission Consent Rules, Sinclair Broadcasting

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 Dish is paying for other far less popular channels it carries.” Broadcasters have long noted that cable and satellite companies pay less for stations carrying ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC than they do for low-rated cable channels. But distributors point out that broadcasters’ signals are worth less because they’re also available for free over the air and on Web sites such as Hulu. Sinclair adds that its negotiations with Dish “involve matters other than pricing” — noting that broadcasters are in court charging that Dish’s ad-zapping Hopper DVR infringes on their copyrights. Sinclair is urging Dish customers to switch to a service “that values Sinclair stations enough to carry them,” including DirecTV or a local cable or telco video provider.

PREVIOUS, 6:55 AM: Here we go again, another retransmission consent contract dispute between Dish Network and a broadcaster. A blackout could affect Dish customers in 45 cities where Sinclair owns or provides services to stations — including affiliates of Fox (20 stations), MyTV (18), ABC (11), CW (14), CBS (9), NBC (1) and Azteca (1). “We carry more than 1,800 local broadcast stations nationwide. Sinclair is asking for more than any other station anywhere in the country,” says Dish SVP Dave Shull. “This goes beyond pure corporate greed — it’s profoundly insensitive to the needs of the public.” Sinclair says that although it is still negotiating with Dish, there’s “significant doubt” as to whether they can reach an agreement. Dish accounts for about 3.6M of the 27.2M homes that Sinclair reaches, according to SNL Kagan data. This is just the latest spat between Dish and a broadcaster. It recently had a run in with tiny Hoak Media, and all of the leading broadcasters are battling Dish’s Hopper DVR which can automatically skip past commercials on shows recorded from major network affiliates. Dish also has dropped all the cable channels from AMC Networks. Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen has vigorously attacked broadcasters’ retransmission demands, calling them a “government-sponsored monopoly.” Sinclair shares are down about 1.7% in early trading.

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Lawmakers Ponder: Are Big Media Companies Too Powerful?

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday July 24, 2012 @ 7:44pm PDTTags: Big Deals TV, Big Media, Broadcast TV, Cable, Retransmission Consent Rules, U.S. Senate

That wasn’t the precise topic of the Senate Commerce Committee hearing today. (It had the boring title: “The Cable Act at 20.”) But the question — as well as ones about whether the federal government over-regulates media — bubbled underneath the discussion of problems including higher-than-inflation annual pay TV price hikes, and contract disputes that sometimes result in blackouts of consumers’ favorite channels. Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W Va.) says that there’s too little competition in a system where pay TV customers “are still forced to pick larger and larger packages of channels no matter how few they watch.” His view resonated with Colleen Abdoulah, a witness who chairs the American Cable Association which primarily represents small and mid-sized cable operators. She says that broadcasters make “crazy payments for sports (rights) because they can be forced onto consumers…This abuse of power should be outlawed.” Mark Cooper of the Consumers Federation of America also called for changes that would enable pay TV customers to just buy the channels they want. “The only way to break the market power (of major networks and programmers) is to ensure consumers have choices.” Read More »

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Hearst: Time Warner Cable Holds Subs “Hostage” To Change TV Carriage Laws

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday July 18, 2012 @ 12:15pm PDTTags: Big Deals TV, Hearst Television, Retransmission Consent Rules, Time Warner Cable

UPDATE, 2:24 PM: Time Warner Cable’s response to Hearst: “Negotiations are ongoing,” it says. That’s it. But the American Cable Association, an industry trade group, was more outspoken about the broader dispute over … Read More »

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Dish Network Resolves Retransmission Consent Show Down With Hoak Media

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday June 14, 2012 @ 12:08pm PDTTags: Dish Network, Hoak Media, Retransmission Consent Rules

Dish Network subscribers who live in the markets with one of Hoak Media’s 14 TV stations can see its programming again after a week-long black out. The companies settled their dispute, which Dish said followed Hoak’s demand … Read More »

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Is Congress Prepared To Deregulate Television?

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Friday December 16, 2011 @ 4:10pm PSTTags: DirecTV, National Association of Broadcasters, Retransmission Consent Rules

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) apparently think so based on the cable- and satellite-friendly bill they submitted today called the Next Generation Television Marketplace Act. It would end retransmission consent — the rules that require pay … Read More »

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Cablevision Tells FCC: Let Us Carry Just The TV Networks We Want

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday May 26, 2011 @ 9:54am PDTTags: ABC, Cablevision, FCC, Fox, Retransmission Consent Fees, Retransmission Consent Rules

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 »

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Stations Go Dark On Dish In Retrans Spat

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Saturday March 5, 2011 @ 4:15pm PSTTags: Dish Network, LIN Media, Retransmission Consent Fees, Retransmission Consent Rules, TV
Nellie Andreeva

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 »

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