So like I said (kind of) the whole Fox v. Time Warner Cable thing (which, btw, included Bright House Networks, another, smaller cable MSO covering parts of Florida, California and the Midwest) has been hashed out, in theory at least. The sides, per New Year's Day news splashed all over the trades and even your local paper, have "agreed in principle to a comprehensive distribution agreement."
Which is fine and good and I'm certainly glad that everyone who wants to watch the Sugar Bowl game between the Gators of Florida and the Cincinnati Bearcats (big FL blowout, btw) got to do so.
It didn't affect me and my particular Time Warner Cable outpost here in North San Diego County so I wasn't really feeling the pressure. But the issue of Fox wanting the cable companies to pay them additionally for carrying their local stations' signals concerns me because they get that bandwidth for a song from the FCC, the regulatory body charged with the task of watching what they do with it.
(I'm not talking cable channels, they are a completely different animal. I'm talking about the local channels in my area that are either owned or have in place an affiliate agreement with Fox, NBC, ABC, CBS or The CW.)
We are already giving bandwidth that was valued in 2007 by FCC commissioner Michael Copps in the NY Times at more than $500,000,000,000 (that five hundred billion dollars) to those stations across the country that make a promise in return for that gift to serve in the public interest.
What Fox told us by virtue of the whole kerfuffle over fees they wanted from the cable companies is that they can't make it given the parameters of their agreement with us, the public, who not only give them the broadcast spectrum that they use but also pay for that cable to come into the house and bring us stuff other than Fox.
Whatever the deal is that has been struck in this case ends up making us (meaning you and me) pay a second time. More on that later.
Well, what I have to say to the cable company is easy and predictable ... stop carrying broadcast channels. Cut 'em off. I can switch over to a digital antenna to watch the local news or NBC's Community or Fox's Fringe.
(Of course, I can also watch any of that on the Internet as well. Maybe not the local news, but then again when was the last time that you actually found something on the local news that was worth your time and consideration?)
The plus side for cable subscribers is all that space on the cable grid that will open up and be available for, and this is just an example, BBC America in HD.
(Begrudging note for my Time Warner Cable regional muckety-mucks ... I don't need E! in HD but I do need BBC America's HD service. Kim Kardashian's ample booty is perfectly viewable in standard definition ... and even from space.)
It seems to me in this case Fox wants to get paid twice ... once in the form of channel spectrum, which we as the citizens of this democratic republic have decided belongs to all of us so it is in fact a payment of sorts ... and then again by charging the cable companies to carry their broadcast signal.
A cable operator must carry the local stations that buy station licenses in their area (must carry provision details at this link) but stations themselves can in fact deny their signal to a cable operator.
The next time push comes to shove in this situation I would love to see the cable companies dig in their heels. I would buy each of my subscribers a digital antenna before I'd let my channel lineup be held up for ransom (top of page) by a broadcast entity that already gets bandwidth for a nominal fee that cares less and less with each passing year about the public's interest in regulating its own airwaves.
This is going to become a big thing in the future...and our cable bills are going to go up. While not at the level of FOX and TimeWarner, Scripps has pulled HGTV and Food Network from Cablevision over a contract dispute. No Steve Hanneman...no Scott McGillvray (horror!). So buckle down, folks. It's only getting started.
Posted by: bamberluvr | January 03, 2010 at 07:09 PM