hutch
12-06-2014, 03:27 AM
c/p
Dish Subscribers Could Lose CBS On Thursday
Unable to reach a new deal with Dish Network, CBS is threatening to go dark on the satellite carrier later this week. The two sides are currently operating under a second extension but in a statement CBS said the last extension was the final one and that Dish has “not been operating with the same sense of urgency.”
CBS would just be the latest station to go dark on Dish over the last year. Several of Time Warner's Turner networks, including Cartoon Network and CNN, have been off of Dish since late October. With advertising lagging, networks are trying to get more money from providers but at the same time satellite and cable companies are trying to keep costs down so as not to scare away customers who might be ready to cut the cord.
Making things more complicated is a bevvy of online-only offerings coming from companies like CBS. In October, CBS announced an online subscription service that will give fans (in the bigger markets) access to live streaming of CBS shows. Everyone who subscribes will be able to watch about 6,500 archived shows.
CBS is also considering an online-only Showtime. It’s conceivable that in the not-too-distant future, you’ll be able to access almost any CBS content you want online.
Dish’s Charlie Ergen isn’t dumb. He’s seen the cord free writing on the wall and he’s been hustling to put together an online offering of his own. Digital rights are one of the issues at the heart of the current dispute.
But the thing that will likely make this fight different than the one between Dish and Time Warner is football. CBS can’t offer football on streaming. And if there’s anything on CBS that Dish subscribers are going to rebel over missing, it’s football. Live sports are still the most popular thing on TV. Football games can attract upward of 20 million live viewers. There’s almost no other TV that draws those kinds of numbers any more. Football is still a big win for cable and satellite providers, networks and advertisers.
Until sports are untethered from traditional TV, it will be hard for companies like Dish to ever really have ultimate leverage over networks like CBS. Viewers will go without CNN but they won’t go without football.
Dish Subscribers Could Lose CBS On Thursday
Unable to reach a new deal with Dish Network, CBS is threatening to go dark on the satellite carrier later this week. The two sides are currently operating under a second extension but in a statement CBS said the last extension was the final one and that Dish has “not been operating with the same sense of urgency.”
CBS would just be the latest station to go dark on Dish over the last year. Several of Time Warner's Turner networks, including Cartoon Network and CNN, have been off of Dish since late October. With advertising lagging, networks are trying to get more money from providers but at the same time satellite and cable companies are trying to keep costs down so as not to scare away customers who might be ready to cut the cord.
Making things more complicated is a bevvy of online-only offerings coming from companies like CBS. In October, CBS announced an online subscription service that will give fans (in the bigger markets) access to live streaming of CBS shows. Everyone who subscribes will be able to watch about 6,500 archived shows.
CBS is also considering an online-only Showtime. It’s conceivable that in the not-too-distant future, you’ll be able to access almost any CBS content you want online.
Dish’s Charlie Ergen isn’t dumb. He’s seen the cord free writing on the wall and he’s been hustling to put together an online offering of his own. Digital rights are one of the issues at the heart of the current dispute.
But the thing that will likely make this fight different than the one between Dish and Time Warner is football. CBS can’t offer football on streaming. And if there’s anything on CBS that Dish subscribers are going to rebel over missing, it’s football. Live sports are still the most popular thing on TV. Football games can attract upward of 20 million live viewers. There’s almost no other TV that draws those kinds of numbers any more. Football is still a big win for cable and satellite providers, networks and advertisers.
Until sports are untethered from traditional TV, it will be hard for companies like Dish to ever really have ultimate leverage over networks like CBS. Viewers will go without CNN but they won’t go without football.