Posted on 01/21/2023 1:20:06 AM PST by E.G.C.
How many of you out there have heard of a company called Nexstar?
Well, if you haven't heard of the company then read on because I have a story to tell you about this company and our dealings with them here in our neck of the woods.(Southern Oklahoma)
Nexstar Media Group is a TV outfit that is based out of Irving Texas. It currently owns over 200 TV stations all across the country.
One of those stations is KFOR-TV, Oklahoma's News 4, Oklahoma City. This station first signed on in 1949 as WKY-TV, Oklahoma's very first TV station and was originally owned by Oklahoma Publishing Company which was a predecessor to Gaylord Broadcasting. They actually issued the very first tornado warning in the 1960's back when it was unheard of.
Which brings us to today. Our home has been a "4 WARN storm house". We have been religiously turning to KFOR's Chief Meteorologist, Mike Morgan. Now, Mike has been forecasting Oklahoma weather for over 4 decades. He's the best in the business here in Oklahoma. You may have seen his outstanding coverage of all the tornado outbreaks here in Oklahoma from years past on Youtube.
For many years we streamed KFOR's newscast live on their website to get Mike's daily weather forecast. His over four decades of weather forecasting experience and storm tracking and analyzing expertise have proven to be very valuable.
Well, unfortunately, all of that came to an end with a recent idiotic decision by the powers that be at KFOR parent company Nexstar. They made the decision to stop streaming TV newscasts on all of their TV station's website and apps.
Nexstar claims the move was "to fulfill our obligations to our cable, satellite and telecom partners." You and I know better. I think they did this because they want higher "retransmission consent" fees. As you and I know, cable and satellite providers do not pay those fees, they pass them along to the customers.
Now, to give you an idea of where we are geographically, we are in Comanche OK which is in Stephens County. Stephens County is in the Wichita Falls/Lawton TV market. KFOR TV where Mike Morgan is based is the NBC station in the Oklahoma City TV market.
Because of this we can't get KFOR on cable here. Also, there is no antenna that can pick up the station from where we are. Oklahoma City is 80 miles from us. Therefore the only way we could watch KFOR News 4 newscasts is through the live stream.
Not a whole lot of people have the financial means to buy an over the air TV antenna or subscribe to cable or satellite. This is why these live TV newscasts streams are so essential. What Nexstar did here is the absolute DUMBEST, STUPIDEST, MOST IDIOTIC thing I've ever seen in my life (I'm 58 years old. I'll be turning 59 in April.)
Now, thing to keep in mind is this idiotic decision was made by Nexstar corporate in Irving TX. None of the over 200 station owned by this group had ANYTHING WHATSOEVER to do with this decision.
Apparently, what has not occurred to those jackals is there is this thing called "public interest". When you applied for a TV broadcast license, (or a radio broadcast license for that matter) you did so with the understanding that you agreed to SERVE THE PUBLIC INTEREST AS A PUBLIC TRUSTEE. Choosing to place financial consideration, profits and the bottom line above the needs of your viewers is NOT fulfilling this promise, it's doing the opposite. IT'S ILL-SERVING THE PUBLIC INTEREST!!!!!! This is what Nexstar is doing with this idiotic decision to pull the plug on the live newscast streams. They're choosing to place financial considerations and the bottom line above the needs of their viewers. This is NOT RIGHT, this is NOT FITTING AND PROPER and you know it and I know it.
Now, for those out there saying it's a private company. they can do what they want, well yes they can but maybe they should try and put themselves in the shoes of people who DON'T have the financial means to buy a TV antenna and/or a cable TV subscription and depend on these live TV streams for their access to life saving weather and emergency information. Nobody, whether it's a cable or satellite company or a person, NOBODY should have to pay anything to watch something they can get for free over the air.
This BTW is the very same company (Nexstar) that owns the NBC station here in our market. Several years ago we had a smarmy piece of garbage, Duane Lammers who ran this station and used this stupid "syndicated exclusivity" rule to block us from being able to access life saving weather and information from the Oklahoma City Stations.
All of this nonsense is the result of the idiotic Retransmission Consent provisions which were passed in 1992 as part of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 as well as the stupid Syndication exclusivity laws. Folks, this is preventing those who do not have the financial means to buy an antenna or a cable subscriptions from being able to access vital and essential life saving weather and emergency information from these TV stations.
It's time for the FCC to step in and repeal those stupid laws (Syndicated Exclusivity and Retransmission Consent) so that those underserved people are able to access this life saving weather and information. TV news viewers deserve better than this.
Choosing to place financial interests above the needs of your viewers is NOT the way to run a TV broadcast business. What you're doing here is turning off your viewers to the point where they no longer want to support you. This is what Nexstar is doing here and they're going to end up losing viewers as a result.
He wants to pull in a station ~80 miles away. Cheap indoor antenna ain’t gonna cut it. Gonna need a roof mount.
I hope it does help! Here in the Blue Ridge stations are a bit hard to pull in through the mountains, radio too. But we still get 37 air channels, and it’s a good deal.
If you can get to the internet to see your local “news” channel’s stream then you can get to the internet to go to weather.com, or Google weather, or Yahoo weather, or a million other weather websites that are pulling their data from the same place as your TV network. And many of them can be set to send you alerts about heavy weather through various means.
If they make more money signing “exclusive” contracts with cable and satellite then it’s good business. Profits are always the priority, without those you have no business.
Thankfully some TV media companies are showing more sensitivity to the needs of viewers for this kind of expertise and information. I have a ROKU which includes the Griffin TV Stations, KWTV 9 and KOTV 6. Both stations provide live newscasts streams and live extended coverage of breaking news events. Gary England, the legendary meteorologist at KWTV 9 forecasted Oklahoma weather for 5 decades and made lots of innovations which are still being used by both stations. Travis Meyer is the Chief at KOTV in Tulsa and David Payne is the chief at KWTV.
It may be good business for the TV companies to do things like this but what you're doing here is shutting out people who have no financial means of buying a TV antenna or getting a cable subscription. This is a really shabby way of treating your viewers and what you end up doing is driving away viewers from your product which will eventually end up killing your product.
The suites at Nexstar know this but they continue to make stupid decisions anyway. This is going to end up killing all of those 200 TV stations that they own.
You just can't go and piss off your customers like this, it's a very poor business stragedy.
But they’re NOT. As multiple people have pointed out to you antennas are CHEAP, if you can afford the internet, you can afford an antenna. Also, one of the primary internet providers in most areas is the cable company, and they all discount bundles.
The suits at Nexstar DID THEIR JOB. Make money. That is the SOLE PURPOSE of ALL COMPANIES. If they don’t turn a profit, they go out of business and can’t provide of those services you think are so important.
You’re not their customer. You’re not paying them. They’re customers are advertisers and cable and satellite providers. They write Nextstar checks, you don’t.
I am an old cable exec.
The problem you are complaining about is the result of the retransmission consent rules that were passed by Congress in the 1990’s. The intent was to prevent a major market local broadcaster from putting a smaller market TV station out of business.
It has nothing to do with the cable operator or the larger TV station; but rather the smaller market station is “flexing” to maintain their market share.
In the olden days we would import Boston and Hartford stations into out Western MA systems. These stations would carry better news and sports. But once the law passed, local operators signed agreements with all of the networks and bam! No more Boston channels.
Thank your Congress critters for this one. It’s a 25 year old rule that sucked from the start.
And, another thing, you want to have the whistle blown on you and get taken to cleaners on this you just go and continue to piss off your audience like this.
As far as I'm concerned, Perry Sook and the suites at Nexstar can go and stick it where the sun don't shine and that goes for those who think it's a good idea to treat their audience like ATM machines instead of human beings.
I can do without these sorry pieces of lowlife garbage in my life.
This kind of nonsense is going to be what ends up killing this country.
TO PERRY SOOK AND THE SUITS AT NEXSTAR, YOU CAN TAKE YOUR TV STATIONS AND STICK IT WHERE THE SUN SHINE, I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO USE WHATSOEVER FROR YOU AND YOUR KIND. THAT GOES FOR THOSE WHO THINK IT'S A GOOD THING TO PLACE PROFITS ABOUT THE NEEDS OF YOUR CUSTOMERS!!!!!!!
It does actually make it right. And you’re not wanting to deal with them any more is also right. Welcome to freedom of choice and capitalism. Everybody gets to make their own decisions for how best to run their lives and companies.
And welcome to the National Weather Service:
https://www.weather.gov/
Where ALL of the information your TV network tells you about weather comes from. And you’ve already paid for it.
Good explanation of the history—the only piece you left out was the lobbying that made it happen.
The local broadcasters were a part of the National Association of Broadcasters which had/still has an impressive DC lobbying effort that knew how to bribe and/or blackmail politicians. They could destroy any Congress-critter with negative coverage on their local stations. Those who co-operated were rewarded with favorable coverage.
It was (and is) a classic shake-down operation.
I hope it does help! Here in the Blue Ridge stations are a bit hard to pull in through the mountains, radio too. But we still get 37 air channels, and it’s a good deal.
I hope it does help! Here in the Blue Ridge stations are a bit hard to pull in through the mountains, radio too. But we still get 37 air channels, and it’s a good deal.
If you have a Roku, there is a free app you can get on there called Haystack. You can access KFOR-TV on there according to Google. Easy to use and free free free!
This DOES NOT however exempt them from public criticism and ridicule. I addressed this very issue on Edward's Journal and also on my Facebook page. People are pissed off and rightly so.
And I'll tell you something else, there's NO WAY I would support your business with this kind of attitude (profits above customers) if you ran one. I'd tell you to go stick it where the sun don't shine also.
It's dumb, it's stupid, and it's idiotic and people like Perry Sook need to be exposed for the lowlifes they are.
And that's just what I intend to continue to do.
Yes it absolutely does. Because you either have a free economy or a command economy. In a free economy companies are free to decide which revenue stream matters the most and drop the rest. THAT IS RIGHT. ALWAYS.
Sure. Just make sure your criticism is accurate. Screaming that what they’re doing is wrong is not accurate. It is not wrong.
Again, YOU ARE NOT A CUSTOMER. Have you ever written Nextstar a check? Customers write checks. You are a PRODUCT. You are sold to advertisers, and cable companies.
So far all you’re exposing is that you don’t understand business and profitability.
And quite frankly I can do without lowlife scum like Perry Sook. He's a BRAIN DEAD MORON!!!!!!!
You want to treat me like a product instead of a human being, FINE, I'll take my business ELSEWHERE!!!!!
I'll do fine without people like that thank you.
My disdain for the political process came from my work in the cable TV business.
Part of my job was to interface with local city and state government. They were hamfisted in their quid pro quo fundraising. And you would have to listen to them drone on and on.
Once or twice a year we would go to DC. Those folks were a whole new level of grifters. If you did not show up with a bundle of checks you would never be able to get an appointment with the very busy reps and senators.
And in the end…because “everyone hates the cable company” they just kept tightening the screws.
The over regulation is what lead to the smaller companies to sell out to the Comcast’s of the world. Comcast, when I was in the business, was a decent sized operator out of Philly. They were an ambitious bunch—but not as sharp as the senior management of our group. But our group was older and they just took the money and ran.
Congress wrecks everything.
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