Local market negotiations

[jeffcarp]

Since the ABC affiliate in the Des Moines DMA is not part of the current offering, I have been contacting various people to try and express a viewer's opinion of the situation. The station manager said something to me that I dismissed at first, but then I started thinking about it again.

He mentioned that Dish almost always doesn't include 1 station in each market when they launch. It is usually a smaller, independent station. He said that in most markets, the stations are controlled by the huge conglomerates (Hearst, etc) and that retrans is negotiated corporately for all markets. Since these large contracts are not as economically beneficial to Dish, they then target a small operator in a market who they view as the weakest for negotiating power. They then hold out on that station attempting to "make up" some of the money lost by the big national agreements. Their goal, he said, was to hit a particular target cost for a total DMA. They do this with the only leverage they have, which is the small stations.

Does anyone buy this? I have noticed lately as Dish announces new DMA's that almost all of them have 1 network missing. I was originally complaining to the local affiliate but now wonder if I shouldn't redirect my complaints to Dish?

[BrettR]

I'd just wait and dont get caught up in the politics. Both Dish and the station have to eventually negotiate in good faith.

There is negotiaton also between the network and the affiliates. The networks are likely to compensate Hearst and some of the bigger station groups than smaller station groups.

The network affiliated broadcasters in the smaller markets atleast can get some retransmission and a prized spot on E* satellites. They probably can get more retransmission from cable than satellite. The independents from the larger markets, are tossed on the wing satellites and get no retransmission.

Atleast according to what FCC tells: broadcaster has to negotiate in good faith. Comcast on the other hand, does not have to negotiate in good faith with its channels as they are not a broadcaster but a cable company, so can use a loophole. Talk about inequality.

Many of the Philly broadcasters wanted satellite carriage even before Dish had Philly. Comcast competes with the stations in local advertising. If a subscriber switches to DirecTV, they wont see the ads Comcast makes money from and it devalues Comcast's rate they can charge and Comcast's local advertising efforts. As Ch. 3 , Ch.6 and Ch.10 are all competing against this, its to their benefit Comcast advertising selling is hurt. I'd think this be the case with any broadcaster. They should want satellite carriage. Cable maybe sending down a horrid PQ of the local station, which could also affect their ratings.

[Jacob S]

Also if the stations receive less from the satellite company than they do from the cable companies then they may not like that either, wanting just as much from satellite as they do from the cable suppliers.

I think that since it will reach more people that they will get an increase in advertising revenue, so even if they got nothing, they would still make more money.