CMFINC
03-29-2010, 07:05 PM
Citadel to DIRECTV Subs – Shove It!
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Citadel to DIRECTV Subs – Shove It!
How many more times can I write about this? I'm not really sure ... but retrans gluttony has struck again this time potentially disenfranchising close to a couple hundred thousand DIRECTV customers living in the nation's heartland.
Broadcaster Citadel Communications wants DIRECTV to pay double ... that's DOUBLE ... last year's retransmission fees for their three stations: ABC affiliates in Des Moines, Iowa and Lincoln, Nebraska and a CBS affiliate in Davenport, Iowa.
Citidel won't agree to arbitration.
They say they won't let DIRECTV continue to air the stations while negotiations continue.
So, assuming the March 31 deadline passes without an agreement, the customers get hit. For the folks in Iowa that's particularly tough: They have no alternative stations. No CBS. No ABC. And off-air antennas are not necessarily cheap ... nor do they work everywhere.
Of course, this isn't just Citadel. Every broadcaster, large and small, across the nation is playing this same game. Pay up or else. Which ultimately is the same as telling consumers – who are, after all, the putative owners of the billions of dollars in "free" spectrum gifted to the broadcasters – to pay up.
If programming costs (and not just those demanded by broadcasters) continue to rise, someday, somewhere, somebody is going to say NO. Odds are that somebody will be a consumer. And then another, and then another and then ... The business models quaintly known as "multichannel" TV will begin to crumble.
Which could make today's travails in the newspaper business look like a jelly roll.•
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Citadel to DIRECTV Subs – Shove It!
How many more times can I write about this? I'm not really sure ... but retrans gluttony has struck again this time potentially disenfranchising close to a couple hundred thousand DIRECTV customers living in the nation's heartland.
Broadcaster Citadel Communications wants DIRECTV to pay double ... that's DOUBLE ... last year's retransmission fees for their three stations: ABC affiliates in Des Moines, Iowa and Lincoln, Nebraska and a CBS affiliate in Davenport, Iowa.
Citidel won't agree to arbitration.
They say they won't let DIRECTV continue to air the stations while negotiations continue.
So, assuming the March 31 deadline passes without an agreement, the customers get hit. For the folks in Iowa that's particularly tough: They have no alternative stations. No CBS. No ABC. And off-air antennas are not necessarily cheap ... nor do they work everywhere.
Of course, this isn't just Citadel. Every broadcaster, large and small, across the nation is playing this same game. Pay up or else. Which ultimately is the same as telling consumers – who are, after all, the putative owners of the billions of dollars in "free" spectrum gifted to the broadcasters – to pay up.
If programming costs (and not just those demanded by broadcasters) continue to rise, someday, somewhere, somebody is going to say NO. Odds are that somebody will be a consumer. And then another, and then another and then ... The business models quaintly known as "multichannel" TV will begin to crumble.
Which could make today's travails in the newspaper business look like a jelly roll.•