Our Stake in the Tribune - Direct battle?
- Status
1 - 18 of 18 Posts
Joined
·
54,334 Posts
I don't know when the DISH / Tribune contract is up - hopefully not soon.
The biggest player I see in these issues is Fox broadcasting. They are asking for money from affiliates for rebroadcast via satellite, which leads the affiliates to ask for more money from DISH and DirecTV to cover those fees. Somewhere along the line they forgot that they made money by getting into people's homes and providing quality television that people wanted to watch and decided to charge extraordinary fees just for being allowed into each home.
Tribune has other networks than Fox across the country ... but they have learned from Fox how to charge their viewers to watch their programming. Tribune has also learned the Fox trick of tying non-broadcast programming (WGN America) to broadcast networks and leveraging one "product" to sell another.
Personally I don't believe money should be involved with retransmitting local stations. If local broadcasters want to refuse to be on cable/satellite then they should be able to do so - but not as an extortion tactic. The sad part is that the broadcasters seem to have it backwards. They will allow free carriage for some providers (generally small cable providers who serve an apartment complex or other small group of people) but attempt to extort $1 fees per month from larger providers. The actual equipment cost for those small providers to put a channel on the air is in the thousands where the equipment cost for larger providers, especially DBS, reaches the millions. Before paying the extortion.
Instead of asking for a piece of the action local broadcasters should be paying for a piece of the expense of delivering their content to their viewers.
As for this issue ... my guess is that it, like the DISH battle with Fox, will be settled. Hopefully DirecTV will put up a fight so DISH won't be pressured to pay a higher price just because DirecTV agreed to it.
The biggest player I see in these issues is Fox broadcasting. They are asking for money from affiliates for rebroadcast via satellite, which leads the affiliates to ask for more money from DISH and DirecTV to cover those fees. Somewhere along the line they forgot that they made money by getting into people's homes and providing quality television that people wanted to watch and decided to charge extraordinary fees just for being allowed into each home.
Tribune has other networks than Fox across the country ... but they have learned from Fox how to charge their viewers to watch their programming. Tribune has also learned the Fox trick of tying non-broadcast programming (WGN America) to broadcast networks and leveraging one "product" to sell another.
Personally I don't believe money should be involved with retransmitting local stations. If local broadcasters want to refuse to be on cable/satellite then they should be able to do so - but not as an extortion tactic. The sad part is that the broadcasters seem to have it backwards. They will allow free carriage for some providers (generally small cable providers who serve an apartment complex or other small group of people) but attempt to extort $1 fees per month from larger providers. The actual equipment cost for those small providers to put a channel on the air is in the thousands where the equipment cost for larger providers, especially DBS, reaches the millions. Before paying the extortion.
Instead of asking for a piece of the action local broadcasters should be paying for a piece of the expense of delivering their content to their viewers.
As for this issue ... my guess is that it, like the DISH battle with Fox, will be settled. Hopefully DirecTV will put up a fight so DISH won't be pressured to pay a higher price just because DirecTV agreed to it.
Joined
·
11,540 Posts
!rollingscooper said:
Joined
·
15,556 Posts
If you've got friends or neighbors who subscribe to DirecTV who are faced with missing important (to them) programming, invite them over to watch.
I know American's have become awfully "you're on your own, buddy", but Congress isn't going to help us against the media companies. Right now the future cost of home entertainment is at the mercy of the likes of News Corp/Fox (Rupert Murdoch), CBS/Viacom (Sumner M. Redstone & familiy), Disney/ABC/ESPN, Comcast/NBCU, and Time Warner. They own most of the content we all watch, whether through one of their TV networks or streaming.
I know American's have become awfully "you're on your own, buddy", but Congress isn't going to help us against the media companies. Right now the future cost of home entertainment is at the mercy of the likes of News Corp/Fox (Rupert Murdoch), CBS/Viacom (Sumner M. Redstone & familiy), Disney/ABC/ESPN, Comcast/NBCU, and Time Warner. They own most of the content we all watch, whether through one of their TV networks or streaming.
When I had some communication with the general manager of my local CBS station (which was removed recently for part of a day), his point was that Dish was making money off of me in the $5 I am paying for locals, and that his station should be able to share in that.
I doubt that paying all the fees to retransmit that station to me, along with the other three local channels, allows Dish to make much from that $5. Anyone have any feel for how much that might be per individual per month? I have a hard time believing that if Dish has to pay each local channel $1 per month, that all the retrans costs would also only equal $1.
I doubt that paying all the fees to retransmit that station to me, along with the other three local channels, allows Dish to make much from that $5. Anyone have any feel for how much that might be per individual per month? I have a hard time believing that if Dish has to pay each local channel $1 per month, that all the retrans costs would also only equal $1.
Joined
·
9,822 Posts
That would be a good argument if true, but I am afraid it costs the providers more than $5 per subscriber in most markets to carry the stations. They have to receive the signals, mulitplex it, fiber link it to their uplink facility, convert it from mpeg2 to mpeg4, remux it, send it to specially designed spot beam satellites with a very limited lifespan. All for $5 a month per sub.Charise said:
I think we still have some time with the Tribune deal. Dish renewed it's retransmission agreement back in June 2008 when they launched WGN America HD. So we aren't even 4 years into the deal yet.
http://www.multichannel.com/article...ission_Deal_With_Tribune_Rolls_Out_WGN_HD.php
http://www.multichannel.com/article...ission_Deal_With_Tribune_Rolls_Out_WGN_HD.php
Joined
·
15,556 Posts
Yeah...zippyfrog said:
The language comes from this news release which does not tell us whether the agreement is for 4 years, 8 years, or 80 years. If it were for 4 years it would be up in June.
Joined
·
15,556 Posts
The guide data used by Dish and others is provided by Tribune Media Services, Inc., a subsidiary of The Tribune Company.dishrich said:Uh, & this has what to do with all the Tribune TV stations...HOW???scooper said:
So far, nobody has proposed tying the guide data service to negotiations for Tribune Company channel retransmission fees. But hey, why not?
There's a rather impressive list of assets owned by The Tribune Company on Wikipedia.
Joined
·
54,334 Posts
Yep ... it was the Tribune TV stations that were pulled off of DirecTV today.
Joined
·
221 Posts
My personal opinion is that Tribune is using extortion tactics to ring a few extra bucks out of DirecTV. It's been pointed out that the issue at hand seems to be more about creditors and Tribune's current bankruptcy proceedings than anything else. I also have a hard time understanding why DirecTV should have to pay anything for something that a station offers for free over the air. If satellite uplinks or fibre backhauls need to be maintained, then that should be the burden of the broadcaster, not DirecTV. Besides, the broadcast station gets a wider audience out of the deal. Station operations are supported by local ad revenue. DirecTV gets none of that. Someone please enlighten me if I'm way off base here.
I tend to agree with you, but Congress has set it up so stations can choose either "must carry" or "consent to carry." So we are stuck with this system.n-spring said:
Some alternatives that some have suggested are either that all locals must be carried, with no payment to the local but with guaranteed carriage, or a system by which a fixed fee established by some formula is paid, or that the matter go to some sort of binding arbitration. But right now we are stuck with the system that Congress set up in 1992.
If this was about the guide data source (which it isn't) than yes the "other sources" would be an improvement to the inconsistent EPG data we get today. Tribune can't even get the episode numbers correct (The Simpson's 500th episode was labeled "episode 520"). Many times the original air dates are "generic" causing dish pass timers to failscooper said:
I wish Tribune's guide data would be replaced!
1 - 18 of 18 Posts
- Status
Join the discussion
