Posted on 08/06/2013 7:38:13 PM PDT by EveningStar
Customers have been calling on Time Warner Cable and CBS Corp. to resolve their ongoing carriage dispute that has resulted in channels going dark in several markets including Los Angeles and New York.
Now politicians are demanding an end to the blackout.
Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who recently won John F. Kerry's Senate seat, on Tuesday asked the Federal Communications Commission to step in and restart negotiations.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Stunning!
Oh, thank you SO much MA...
Ou guys are looking more and more like CA with the certified loonies you elect.
I thought cable was not subject to FCC control?
Oh it ok if CBS gets the time Warner death penalty. The prezzy is on Leno tonight not Letterman.
Red states should tax the liberal media — let’s have a 20 percent surcharge on tv advertising.
I think this is a message even the liberal media would understand.
The bigger question is what part of the FCC’s charter would cover this situation? If there was lewd video or 4-letter words.....maybe. But can the FCC force a cable company to carry a network, and the obvious answer is no. For CBS, the amount of money they were making off the cable guys in this case....wasn’t that substantial....but it makes me think they are are on some marginal profit situation currently, and can’t survive without that money.
ALL of the ‘old media’ is in a tailspin. Look at the past week alone, the Boston Globe sells for $70M, pennies on the dollar of sales price when NYT bought 20 years ago. Then WaPo goes for $250M vs the $B+ it was valued at not too long ago. I can see the NYT going next. The networks are bleeding viewers, so their values have also declined.
But I don’t see the FCC having ANY jurisdiction in this matter. But then, again, Markey IS from MA.
The first time one of these cable giants caved and agreed to pay rights fees for a signal they could get for free over the air set a very bad precedent. Ever since then, this nonsense goes on like clockwork.
Actually, there is a tiny bit of muscle involved here. There are FCC rules regarding local channels, and (ugh) lifeline service. But I do really mean a little bit. Does a cable company have to carry EVERY local channel? The answer before has been no from the FCC, so they couldn’t do something silly like ordering TWC to carry CBS.
The biggest sticking point is that CBS wants TWC to pay the same amount per estimated viewer that it does for other cable channels. Which would make local re-broadcast be one of the most expensive channels for TWC. To ‘sweeten the deal’, CBS has offered to lower prices on other channels. In the end, of course, it greatly increases the price.
TWC replied, fine, we’ll do that, but we get to put our own ads in, just like they would on another channel. CBS balked at this and said NO WAY! TWC then replied then if it is just the re-broadcast of the channel, unmodified, then you’re not getting any money more.
And that’s where the dispute sits. CBS wants more money, TWC said sure, but we get to put commercials in, CBS said no to that, TWC said no to the higher rates and dropped the channels as the temporary contract continuation has ended. CBS could be on TWC tonight, all CBS would have to do is go back to letting the contract extend until the debate is ironed out.
But what is not going to happen is what CBS wants - higher rates with no TWC sourced commercials. And any negotiator who steps in is going to agree with them. Because at the end of the day, the bottom tier of customer, that cable lifeline customer, leaves zero overhead for the rates that CBS wants, especially since everyone else is going to go for the same deal.
The time to stop CBS’s s*** was when it telecast Dan Rather’s fraudulent smear against President Bush’s honorable veteran’s record. The network used fraud to unseat a President. The Feds should have stripped their licences and auctioned their frequencies and imprisoned the executives and the news staff.
But can the FCC force a cable company to carry a network, and the obvious answer is no.
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Time Warner didn’t cut off CBS. CBS pulled the plug in major markets like NYC, LA and DFW, as they are asking for a 600% increase in fees from TWC.
Pisses me off, as I like weekend golf on CBS, Friday night Texas Ranger games, Big Brother and Survivor.
Under Clinton the FCC did force them to carry channels like Current-TV, Democracy Now! etc
So many lawyers.... So much time!
We pay ALL the freight because WE ride the trains.
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