Throughout this year there have been several disputes between broadcasters and cable companies over the right and fees involved in distributing and transmitting programming. In an New York Times’ article that I read today I found that one of New York’s biggest cable providers, Cablevision, is having problems with News Corporation, the owner of Fox, because they can’t agree on terms for the cable company to distribute and transmit some channels, something called retransmission consent.
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| News Corporation's Channels |
This term was created by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and basically means that cable companies have to ask and/or negotiate with broadcasters to distribute and transmit their programming. However, broadcasters don’t have to accept cable companies terms.
In the case of Cablevision and News Corporation, if the two companies don’t get to an agreement, Cablevision won’t probably be allowed to broadcast News Corp.’s programming, leaving many subscribers unable to watch some of Fox’s local channels. The article says that besides the uncertainty of what will happen between the two companies, they also have been publishing ads attacking each other. In one ad Cablevision states that News Corporation is charging them exorbitant carrying fees, and so they claim is not fair that subscribers fees be increased. On the other hand, News Corporation’s ads claim that Cablevision can’t provide subscriber’s great sports games and so directing consumers to other cable companies.
I understand that both companies have to act on their best interests, but I think it’s ridiculous that they are taking this issue outside to the public, and create ads that attack each other business. By looking at the ads a consumer can’t be certain of what the right side of the story is. One could say that News Corp is trying to get the most money out of the cable company, and that Cablevision is the poor guy of the story. But on the other side one could blame the cable company, and see all that drama as an excuse that the cable company is using to raise their fees later on and just say it isn’t their fault.
We all know television production is very expensive, it uses lots of very complex and expensive technology and people who know how to manipulate it. I agree that broadcasters charge reasonable amounts of money to cable companies to carry their programming because anyways cable companies get lots and lots of money from subscribers.
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| Channels broadcasted by Cablevision |
