Cable companies compensate most of the channels they offer, sharing a portion of the money they get from subscribers with the individual stations– but apparently Time Warner Cable doesn’t share the wealth with broadcast networks — and Austin, TX NBC affiliate KXAN is having none of it. They want some money!
KXAN’s website has a lobbying section that compares TWC broadcasting their network for free to someone bottling water from a drinking fountain and selling it.
KXAN says:
Here is a basic analogy: If you were to get a drink of water at a public drinking fountain, it is free, but once the water is placed in a package, it is no longer free. The same holds true for local television programming delivered through a subscription-based provider.
…
Time Warner Cable pays cable networks, such as ESPN, TNT, Disney, Lifetime, Nickelodeon, and the list goes on and on. Cable companies often say that local broadcasters have “unreasonable demands” and they are trying to “protect their subscribers from increasing their rates”. If that were true, why are they paying cable networks that have far less viewership than KXAN-TV?We do not believe that a penny a per day per subscriber is an unreasonable demand for our award-winning news, sports and entertainment programming. It is actually much less than what cable companies compensate many of its cable networks, most of which do not have the high viewing of your local NBC station.
The station also says that they’ve reached agreements with every other provider — including DISH network, DirecTV, and AT&T.
Time Warner Cable, on the other hand, claims that KXAN is damaging its reputation as a news outlet by “conveying one sided, misleading information to the public.” And has set up its own “Anti-KXAN” website.
Time Warner Says:
KXAN is demanding money from our customers to pay for a signal that has been and is free. That’s right. They get it free from the Federal Government, but they want you to pay. We don’t want that to happen just so KXAN can add to their revenue base.
KXAN is trying to subsidize their business by charging cable customers money. By doing so, they not only add to their revenue base, but take advantage of their viewers by charging for a signal that is FREE.
This may sound familiar to some of you, as the same struggle is going on all over the country, where other stations owned by KXAN’s parent company, LIN TV, will also be dropped from TWC on October 2nd if a deal isn’t reached.
There are 15 LIN TV-owned stations carried by Time Warner: Austin, Texas; Buffalo, N.Y.; Columbus, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Green Bay, Wis.; Indianapolis; Mobile, Ala.; Springfield, Mass.; Terre Haute, Ind. and Toledo, Ohio.
So what’s a consumer to do? Well, you can wait it out and hope that the stations reach a deal with TWC, buy a good antenna, or you can make plans to switch. LIN-TV is encouraging TWC’s customers to switch to DISH Network — and also told Multichannel News that customers in the Buffalo area and the Fort Wayne market can switch to FiOS.
If you’re in Austin, Buffalo, Columbus, Dayton, Fort Wayne, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Mobile, Terre Haute and Toledo markets you can receive a $50 incentive to switch to DISH.
Retrans Standoff Could Keep LIN TV Stations Off TWC Systems [Multichannel News] (Thanks, Clint!)
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Dish Network Is About To Drop My NBC Affiliate That Isn’t Even Local
Local affiliates have distinct regional zones. If they can cover that area, no other affiliate can. I ran into this wall during the early days of DirecTV. The local stations firmly believed their signal was sufficient at my location and denied DirecTV the ability to transmit one of their other signals to me. If KXAN doesn’t allow its signal to be broadcast on TWC, no other NBC channel can be.
Broadcast TV is already paid for 100% by the advertisements they sell. I have no love for cable companies, but to demand the cable company pay to carry broadcast TV is ridiculous.
This is also happening in Indianapolis with Brighthouse networks and the CBS affiliate WISHtv and its 2 sister stations. WISH carries all the Colts games, so I imagine, there’s going to be a whole lot of unhappy people when they yank the broadcast on Thursday.
[www.wishtv.com]
They are trying to do the same thing over here at San Antonio.
Let’s see…. Hello Hulu and uTorrent… and Peer Guardian!
Or, just wait until the Heros season 2 DVDS hit, and Rent those….
Wow! Terre Haute made it on tha Consumerist! Woo-woo!
Dear Time Warner:
Since when is ANYTHING free?
Hi. I’m the director of digital communications for Time Warner Cable.
Most of the NBC programs are available online for free. Even though you can see 30 Rock, SNL, and any number of broadcast programs completely free of charge over an antenna, LIN TV wants to charge for them. During the past year or so, Hulu.com and other broadcast sites (NBC, FOX, etc.) have started streaming most of their most popular shows online. Total cost: free dollars and free cents.
Charging for something that’s increasingly available for free in other outlets is Bizarro-world economics.
We’re negotiating with LIN TV right now — and using their TV stations to scare and misinform the public is definitely a negotiation tactic. It’s not free like TV online — but it is really cheap.
In case no one’s mentioned it, the local ABC affiliate in San Antonio, KSAT, is having the same battle with Time Warner Cable.
I say forget cable entirely. If you want tv.. use a digital converter box or an digital/hdtv. If you really want additional channels get Directv or Dish network. I have had cable and Directv for years. I have to say that Directv’s picture quality is much much beter then any cable provider. I’m sure Dish network is about the same.
What happened to MUST carry laws? If they can receive the channel over the air.. the cable company MUST carry it. If that’s the case.. then why SHOULD the cable company have to pay for something they are FORCED to carry.??
for full disclosure I work in cable.. though not for this company.
@dottat1: If you had seen any of the previous posts talking about that, that question has been answered a number of times in this discussion, including in one of mine here:
Must carry rules explained