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.
Those kind I DO NOT WANT to pay their salary. That is what Retransmission Consent does, it pays for the salaries of these lowlifes on TV.
This is why I cut the cable in the first place.
It does.
You ARE a product. The entire business model of the communication industr, magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, and the internet, literally for over 100 years has been selling audience to advertisers. You ARE a product. Period.
If you ain’t giving them money, then somebody is giving them money to have access to you. Product.
You’re right. It does. This is why we’re in the mess we’re in today.
This is one of the reasons that the cable companies WANT to go from “product providers” to the conduit (just internet providers.)
The customer service infrastructure is expensive and the margins suck. Building a plant that provides high speed internet is simple and clean. Let the other guys (Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, etc) deal with the screwy billing, the complaints of content, and all of the other overhead.
Advertisements are a different thing because it's what pays the salaries for the radio hosts and the engineers and also pay the bills for the radio and TV stations.
It DOES NOT hurt to stream your programming on the Internet. You can include ads with it. It will make money for you just the same. If you stream your newscasts on your website with ads it will make money just as if you're doing so on your air.
What these sorry bastards (Nexstar suits) are doing here is denying underserved access to essential news and weather information by ending their live newscast streams. I don't give a flying leap what you or anyone says, IT'S DUMB, IT'S STUPID AND IT'S IDIOTIC AND I'M GOING TO CONTINUE TO SCREAM AND SHOUT IT ALL THE WAY AROUND THE WORLD
And, if you don't like well, that's your problem, NOT MINE!!!!!!!
WHAT PERRY SOOK DID HERE IS DUMB, STUPID AND IDIOTIC AND YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO STOP ME FROM SAYING IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!!!!
And MARK MY WORDS, THIS STUPIDITY IS GOING TO BE WHAT KILLS NEXSTAR MEDIA!!!!!!
Yeah, the cable business sucks. Having to buy channels, usually in packages, which force you to make tiers, that actual paying customers hate, and then those networks constantly raise their rates, which the customers hate, and everybody thinks they put the shows on, and all the equipment you need to maintain. Yeah, crappy business to be in. Nothing but headaches.
It does make it right, because it’s their call to make. And they aren’t preventing you from getting information, they’re just not PROVIDING the information through one particular method. You have many many ways to get that information from others.
Advertisements are their source of revenue. Advertisers are the customers. Advertisers are paying for access to the product: viewers. YOU.
It depends on the math. If a cable provider (one of their customers) is willing to pay more for them to not put some content on the website (which actually does cost the company money) then it could be worth it to not put that content on the website. And the revenue stream for web stuff is harder, web advertisers pay less, and demand more data, which costs you money to put together. And internet savvy people are so good at avoiding ads.
What they’re doing is math, and making decisions that best serve the company. If the network went out of business you wouldn’t get any of that information either, from any method.
I don’t care if you want to act like an impudent child throwing temper tantrums and screaming into the air. I’m simply pointing out that you’re accomplishing nothing. You’re not making Nextstar change their mind. You’re not changing the market conditions to give them a good reason to change. You’re just being a petulant child shouting at people for pointing out the reality of the business situation to you.
What Perry Sook did here was a sound business decision. And the fact that all you’ve got is shouting proves it. And spiking your blood pressure like that pretty much guarantees Nextstar media will out live you.
I've pretty much spoken my peace about this. If Perry Sook wants to be a greedy piece of garbage, so be it. I wouldn't invite him to my house for supper if he asked for it.
Just because it's a sound business decision DOES NOT MAKE IT RIGHT!!!!! Sook is NOT a clean pure as the wind driven snow kind of guy and you know it. SOOK IS PND SCUM PLAIN AND SIMPLE!!!!!!!
And quite frankly I can do without people like this.
Your essay progressed into nothing but a rant.
This seals it.
Oh look more shouting.
You’ve way more than spoken your piece. You’ve run right off the rails and showed you don’t understand the facts, won’t acknowledge the logic, and flat out have no idea what the hell you’re talking about. But you’ll keep pounding the table insisting everybody but you is wrong.
But we’re not.
You are.
They have NO IDEA what a "fraidy hole" is.
My friend John the Okie used to tell us stories...
There are far more people who agree with me than disagree with me and anyone saying otherwise is an idiot.
Also look into Starlink.
https://www.openworldlearning.org/how-to-get-local-channels-with-starlink/
I can pick up Nexstar channels from all over the country for free using my Roku device. The Roku was an initial price of $40 to purchase and it works through my existing internet service.
Remember I said Nexstar was discontinuing their live streams of all of their TV station's newscasts on their websites and apps? well, apparently one company has found a way around it.
I'm watching Mike Morgan right now as I type this.
Hopefully this live stream won't be taken down. Thank you BNO News!!!!!!!
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