This is happening in Dayton, Ohio as well. You know, I'd pay 30 cents extra a month for NBC, but I already get charged extra on my bill to have local stations. Where does that money go?

Oh well, my digital converter coupons should be on their way to me in the mail. Once I get those, I'm dropping cable altogether.

$50 to switch? Sure. Just don't forget to add $6 a month for 7 local channel pack. No wonder they advocate Dish -- they'd get way more than a penny. I hope Time Warner will pick up an NBC affiliate from Temple instead. That'd be great!

sweet suffering jesus, what's the chance that I'd live in one of those markets? oy. stupid dayton...

/me was laughing at my dorm-mates who are paying $40/month for basic comcast cable, when i get 9 local digital channels free on my antenna...

I saw that during the Buffalo affiliate's newsbroadcast last night and couldn't figure out what in blazes was going on - thanks for clarifying.

Sounds like someone had a good idea to make some extra cash!

If you are already paying for local why do they need an extra $.30 per subscriber?

I just plugged my tv into the cable outlet and I get a dozen channels or so. My locals in HD even and I don't pay for cable!

This seems not to be an NBC problem, but a LIN TV problem.

Consider about 80% of Americans get their local channels from either cable or satellite, I'd call their bluff. Let's see how demanding the affiliate broadcasters are when their audience drops about 40% or more.

I heard this on the Radio in Austin this morning. I love what TWC said on it.

"You can get it free Over the Air, and Free at NBC.com, so why should you pay for something free."

Round Rock, 2 miles north of Austin doesn't have NBC Austin, They have NBC Waco, 75 miles North of Austin.

I've been around long enough to remember a little bit of history about this. Thirty years ago, cable companies were trying to find a "value" to justify someone paying for their service when they could get TV for free with an antenna. The only way cable could sell their services was to become a replacement, rather than an augment, of the then current television offering. In order to be a replacement, they had to offer local programming in its entirety. (I was one of the early adopters who subscribed to cable just for movie channels). Now it seems Cable, Inc. feels the tables have turned, and they can offer cable without local channels.

Well good luck to them. Hope they're keeping their eyes on the economy, 'cause I see it possibly going the other way (subscribers moving back to broadcast.)

There will be a riot here in Buffalo if this happens, the CBS affiliate has most of the Bills games.

I live in Austin, TX and I see the KXAN ads they are very straight forward. Unlike Time Warner -vs- Satellite ads that are VERY skewed.

In either case, I switched to Dish Network the second I bought at house. Better service, better picture quality, and a MUCH better DVR. Also they are no longer charging $5 a month for local channels. And their DVR receives the local antenna High-Def feed and the Standard-Def satellite feed and can record seamlessly between them.

I live in Austin and don't know what to do. I just signed up for a price lock guarantee with Time Warner, which has a two year contract. I have 30 days to break it. I have to have NBC.

Ugh, this is all so stupid. Between this and the digital conversion messages that never stop, TV is too high maintenance these days.

This keep happening in Buffalo.
First, Time Warner REFUSED to carry the local FOX in HD
Then, they threatened to get rid of NBC
Now, they are saying they will drop CBS, during football season?!? They have some nerve at Time Warner. I am paying them to simply give me cable TV, and they have issues every single frekin year with the local channels.

Die Time Warner, DIE.

I used to work for in local affiliate TV land (I made those terrible local car commercials and tractor store commercials you have to endure) and can say, without a doubt, local broadcasters are some of the lowest paying, behind the times and hyperbole swallowing businesses out there.

Most companies that own groups of locals are biting it hard with the tanking economy and are giving away the store to make up lost revenue and.... well... they dug their own grave, now they can die in it.

TW is playing hardball, but LIN TV deserves some blame too.

LIN held up HD carriage agreements with DirecTV for over 18 months trying to squeeze out a few extra dollars. They're also running ads on WIVB that are just telling people to dump TWC and go to Dish Network.

It's a flawed industry to be sure. I'd say both sides should take equal blame on this one.

@GMFish: The Abilene, TX, NBC affiliate tried the same stunt a couple of years ago. Same dueling ads and op-eds; in the end, the station got pulled for a few months and then there was some face-saving "compromise" that, AFAIK, was status quo ante bellum.

I work for a small, local independent television station in a decently large market. I can tell you firsthand how badly the local stations get jerked around by cable companies and how screwed up the entire situation has become. It's really, really bad, and a lot of local stations are going to be dead in the water come February. >.

OMG I am in austin and don't know what I am going to do. I was going to switch to uverse but they say that the signal is too far from my house so at the moment I can't I don't want a dish. They better resolve this, I want my 30 rock!

Here's how I feel about it... the local broadcasters are getting a superior quality feed nearly for free, by getting it added to cable. They're making money off the advertising on their channels.

So, cable companies shouldn't have to pay them a bloody dime. If the local broadcasters don't like it, they can take their product off the cable system and hope they get -anyone- to still watch, via rabbit ears.

IMO LINTV needs to learn what the word "negotiate" means. You don't get a good price from someone by trashing their company publicly, and advertising that their customers should stop using their service.

TW has a point. Anything I can get from LINTV I can get free on the internet. With a little knowhow you can connect your computer to your TV, and still get the same programming.

Besides, aren't there commercials every 5 minutes on these channels for a reason? I always thought that was how they made their money, not some underrated version of HBO.

This is still happening in St. Louis with Charter Communications in regards to HD feeds. For years there was a dispute between Charter and the ABC affiliate over compensation so ABC HD was not shown on Charter. Charter finally caved in to their demands, only to see the CBS affiliate pull its HD feed from Charter, wanting money.

I don't have Charter anymore but from what I understand the CBS HD feed still isn't shown here (the affiliate advertises it's news in HD is available OTA and on satellite.) Yes we have 2 local news shows in HD (NBC affiliate was first then the CBS affiliate.)

The key here is that the signal's economic value is basically zero (it's free to anybody with an antenna). Of course it's not REALLY zero, but it's zero after the advertisers pay for it.

The economic value of having cable provide local signals is that I don't have to stick an antenna up on my roof. Whether this is worth a penny a month or a buck a month is irrelevant to KXAN - because it's Time Warner that's providing that service of convenience to me - KXAN is doing nothing for it.

Not just NBC pulling this trick, the San Antonio ABC affiliate (KSAT) is doing the same thing. It's been mildly amusing to watch the dueling propaganda sites the companies have put up. In the blue corner, we have KSAT's site, KSAT Community, and in the blue corner is Time Warner, with The Truth Hurts KSAT. I have to wonder who KSAT paid to put that page together, though; if you base your comparison on pure web presentation, I think TWC wins hands down.

@LoveNoelG: Are you a new TWC customer? I just ask, because as a longtime TWC-NYC customer, I would NEVER sign any kind of contract with them, price lock or not. I want to be able to get rid of them and their crappy service/customer service easily. (My only choice right now is TW or broadcast.) I'm also extremely suspicious of any of their "offers" since my TW experience over the last ten years has been uniformly bad. Their service goes out way more often than my DISH-TV ever did, even in thunderstormy North Texas. It takes forever to get an appointment, and they ALWAYS show up very, very late or not at all. They are reluctant to let you do any set-up on your own, even if it's something as simple as plugging in a box. They raise your rates constantly without offering more service. Their HD offerings in my market are terrible. Their DVR boxes have extremely limited features.

My advice? Cancel that contract!

@The Reviewer: Not saying it's a solution, but if you're not able to switch, you could a) buy some rabbit ears or b) watch the show's epsiodes in full online at nbc.com

I'm a bit confused. Aren't the cable companies required to carry most local over-the-air broadcast stations by the FCC?

@GMFish: Are those made-up numbers?

I wonder how LIN TV will feel when their advertisers are requesting cable advertising rates, or when their viewers insist on fewer commercials since they now direct pay for the award winning lotto number drawings.

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.

This is a ridiculous analogy. That is EXACTLY what bottling companies do. They take tap water and put it in a bottle and sell it. There's a reason why Dasani doesn't sell well in Philadelphia (it being bottled in the ghetto of ghettos in North Philly).

I am making the switch back to antenna. Free off the air television is better. Why pay for it now when digital off the air is better quality than cable/satellite? Consider that when Crapcast, TWC and the satellites offer HD, it's really faux HD (compressed so much, it looks like SD). Yep. The business model is changing guys (he he!) I will not pay for 500 channels of infomercials and local T.V. when it's free over the air. The rest I can get on the Internet (for now). ROTFLMAO!

How does that make it a ridiculous analogy? I'd think that would make it a *perfect* analogy.

@vastrightwing:
You'd have to have pretty poor eyesight to think compressed HD looks anything close to SD. Perhaps you saw some SD content broadcast on an HD channel and thought compression was the culprit.

@dantsea: Sort of, but the stations hold the cards. Here's the current deal on that:

Over the air stations in the local market of a cable system can get on a cable system in two ways:

1. Seeking "must carry" status. In this case, the station asserts its right to be carried on a cable system and the system puts it in, without any money changing hands. Usually the station gets the right to ask for a preferred channel, such as the same as their own over the air channel number, in exchange for the cable system not having to pay.

2. Seeking "retransmission consent" status. In this case, the station withholds its right to be carried on the cable system unless the cable system pays for the privilege. The station negotiates the cost of carriage with the cable system owner, and also usually where it will land on the channel lineup.

In both cases the station controls its status on a cable system and a choice between the two has to be made by the station every three years, according to current FCC regulations. Apparently LIN TV is going the "retransmission consent" avenue for its stations.

FCC FAQ on this is here:

[www.fcc.gov]

@DogStarMan:
You're just bitter :)

Wouldn't it be fun if TWC was able to negotiate with ANY affiliate of the network for carry rights? In this day and age, aren't geographical coverage areas just restraint of trade?

TV over the internet... Then they can screw us all for bandwidth use.

OTA HDTV is gonna look better than HD over cable. Get a good antenna and screw cable...

(Only applies if you have an HDTV with a TV tuner in it.)

I find it hard to believe anyone can defend the cable company! They charge outrageous monthly fees for which I get scores of channels that I don't want; I pay their blood-sucking fees so I can have a half dozen channels that I *really* want. My local cable company dropped a la carte pricing years ago, and my monthly bill doubled. I can get 4 HD channels over the air, which is great, but I can't get the 'extra' ones that I want without going through cable or one of the satellite dish companies.

Long live Senator Sanders! from the proud citizens of the People's Republic of Vermont.

We are having this problem over here with our local channel 4 station. The notice comes with an ad to switch to direct TV if you want to continue to watch the station (and get 50$ off) after October 12th or something.

[www.wivb.com]

Lol this is funny. The Lin TV affiliate is having to upgrade their services to DTV ... and having to shell out the money. Coincidence?

Im sure they are asking for money to break even on this. Also Lin TV was shady about this. Running the tv adds and info in the paper saying TWC is dropping them they are playng the press to bully twc into their demands.

@intellivised: Check out some of the commercials on the first digital tier from Comcast and I'm betting it's the same for all the cable companies.

Billy Mays (fifty times a day at least, wang stretchers, get it up pills, acne medicines complete with closeups of somebody's worst zits, weight loss pills, send us your old gold, legal tender Liberian silver or gold plated whatnots, "Chef" Tony and his wonder knife set... all delivered at volume levels at least twice that of the programming itself... almost makes me long for the days when all I had to put up with were "local car commercials and tractor store commercials".

@mugsywwiii: Actually. Comcast was busted for compressing their HD broadcasts to "be able to increase the amount of HD channels they are sending.

Man, I hope they don't really think Columbus is going to give a crap. WWHO is the CW...lol

@zapwizard: My Hd Dvr can do the same. And I dont have to pay for HD service or pay 200$ for a box only to have to return it since noone can use it after me.

@YasashikuAstypalaea: Because they are implying that bottling tap water and selling it is wrong/illegal. In fact, that is what happens everyday and no one seems to have a problem buying the tap water.

Ergo, bad analogy.

@GirlCat: Am in a PLG myself here and I remember them saying you have 60 days to cancel. If you drop before them you are ok. Also I have the Price Lock thing to keep my rates low. I save an extra 15-20$ a month for the next two years and when the ones that complain bout a contract and the price ill be able to keep my low price 2 years from now when I relock and and am saving 50$ a month. :)

@humphrmi: I remember that, too. It was also supposed to be "commercial free" because it was "pay tv." You were paying for it so they wouldn't have to run commercials to make money. Now, it seems that most of cable is commercials/infomercials. So much for that plan...

@intellivised: I don't think much has changed--our local affiliates pay minimum wage to techs, and not much more than that to on air personalities like new anchors, etc.