[BigSkyFreeper]

CNN was threatened to be dropped off the channel lineup of DISH Network. I was watching the CEO of Echostar, Charlie Ergen, explain that CNN has dismal ratings, no one watches them, and they bear the burden of paying for a channel no one watches. It may have been an idea tossed out there, but I know Charlie Ergen really cares about all of us DISH Network customers by giving them the kind of channels they want at a fair price.

[Timesink]

CNN was threatened to be dropped off the channel lineup of DISH Network. I was watching the CEO of Echostar, Charlie Ergen, explain that CNN has dismal ratings, no one watches them, and they bear the burden of paying for a channel no one watches. It may have been an idea tossed out there, but I know Charlie Ergen really cares about all of us DISH Network customers by giving them the kind of channels they want at a fair price.

That was definitely a shot across the bow aimed directly at Time Warner management. The media conglomerates are increasingly trying to screw the cable and satellite companies, both by annually jacking up the amount they charge the cablecos for channels that the cablecos couldn't possibly ever drop without their subscribers going nuts (ESPN, for example), and also by making the cablecos some "offers they can't refuse": "Oh, you're not going to run CNN? Okay then, we're not going to allow you to run any Time Warner networks then. No Cartoon Network, no HBO, no Cinemax, no TBS, no TNT..." Any cable company that couldn't run any of those channels would end up out of business. It's pretty much legalized extortion. And it's why almost all the new channels you get on digital cable and satellite are owned by the same three or four media conglomerates: When the yearly contracts come up, they say, "Okay, you're going to start carrying MTV 14, and pay us for it. Take it or leave it."

I've been saying for a long time that the day is coming where cable and satellite companies are going to switch to a la carte programming, where you pay only for the channels you want. Whether this happens because the cablecos finally get some backbone, or because they get the FCC to mandate it, I don't know. But the showdown is coming.