Question about a dispute in my non-"moved" true market...

edisonprime

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Dec 12, 2012
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Okay, after reading this article I'm wondering if the quote from the article has anything to do with AutoHop on the PrimeTime Anytime feature on the Hoppers regarding my true market (even though I have a "moved" market) and the rest of the Quincy local TV stations in the country.

DISH, KTTC part ways over contract dispute

“This has never been that much about the money. It has been mostly about language in their contract that no other service uses,” he said.
 
Quincy Media wants a 200% increase over the last contract and Dish is not willing to do that, for obvious reasons.
 
The Federally generated DMA markets are being used in a monopolistic way by the broadcasters. And as a monopoly that has gone astray, it is time for the Feds to return an element of competition to restrain those monopolies. That would be to allow the satellite and cable to offer alternative broadcast channels during a dispute.

If the claimed value of the local broadcasters was so important, subscribers would not like the alternative channels and push the satellite/cable providers to settle. If the value of local broadcasters is overstated, then they would just go away or settle.

I could understand a fee to recover the cost of providing signals to the satellite/cable companies, but I could never understand when the fees started to increase for a service that actually expanded the delivery area of the local broadcaster.
 
I think that the networks should be able to offer a direct link to sat and cable broadcasters without any local programing. I do not even watch the local news. The local broadcasters would be out of business within a year.
 
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DISH offers a "no locals" option that reduces your bill by $12. That option works well for folks that get the locals OTA or don't care about receiving them at all.

Or, those who don't want to cough up 12 bucks a month to a bunch of crony capitalists TV station operators and networks running a government sanctioned monopoly. Like me.

And that option is probably part of the reason why the group owner in Quincy wants a 200% increase. How dare Dish give them an out!

"Free TV" my a$$.
 
OK I'm impacted by the Quincy dispute also (Sioux City locals, KTIV NBC.)

I've been through this WAY too many times, both with Directv and Dish. I did expect this one to be over quickly, as Quincy is not a huge media company like, say, Sinclair and others. In their entire company history (they're a relatively small family owned company based in Illinois) they've had less than one day total in terms of time of unresolved dispute.

While I usually am back and forth depending on the specific blackout in terms of "fault," in this case for various reasons I have recently gotten to know some of the main people at Quincy. They do own about 18 networks they've picked over the years, but they've always been very "down home," family style people. They're private so they don't publish their financials but I've seen them; their actual profit/take home cash flow is pretty slim. I've also seen more than I can talk about here, but Dish's claim that they asked for over double what they were paying is just flat out not true. Quincy has completed agreements with all the cable companies and Directv without any problems at all; a buddy I know at Directv said it was "a refreshingly friendly contract renewal, everyone being reasonable and working towards a win-win agreement."

I find it hard to believe that the family owners I know of Quincy have had amicable, reasonable resolutions with everyone from Time Warner, Cox, Drectv, etc, but then decided to go hard core with Dish.
 
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BTW I am VERY convinced that we need the FCC/Congress to get involved and set up binding arbitration and rules on retransmission fees between networks and providers, based on some basic benchmarks. No fights, when the contract is up the fees are already very clearly laid out and everyone has to abide by them.

However since the cable and other providers have a heavy lobby in Washington - ain't gonna happen. :(
 
BTW I am VERY convinced that we need the FCC/Congress to get involved and set up binding arbitration and rules on retransmission fees between networks and providers, based on some basic benchmarks. No fights, when the contract is up the fees are already very clearly laid out and everyone has to abide by them.

However since the cable and other providers have a heavy lobby in Washington - ain't gonna happen. :(

Something I don't overall agree with. Just what I want more Government mandated costs. Let the marketplace decide. The one area that I feel would need some fixing is the contract with the provider by the customer. In the case of cable this isn't an issue for a couple of reasons but with DISH and Direct TV there needs some agreement you can leave if your local is no longer carried and it was when you signed. How long they are off and maybe other issues would help determine if you could leave.

If there is going to be any more Government interaction it should be that the locals get paid at all if their signal can't be received under current FCC rules, something I have elaborated on before.
 
Wasn’t that previous blackout with Directv in 2015? That would put their contract up for renewal here very shortly. Their profit margins being slim, does not mean they are not asking for a 200% increase. Sounds like they need to negotiate with the Big 4 better. That is likely where the majority of their money is going. It is not Dish’s responsibility to pay their bills. It is Dish’s responsibility to pay a fair price. Those are two completely different things, and any fans of the show “The Profit” that watched the Casery episode knows this.
 
I find it hard to believe that the family owners I know of Quincy have had amicable, reasonable resolutions with everyone from Time Warner, Cox, Drectv, etc, but then decided to go hard core with Dish.

Depends but on the whole you may be right. DISH is notorious for being harder to come to terms with. That said it could also be those other contracts are coming up and the local is asking for more than the others will be willing to quickly agree to. I too thought there was a time Directv did not carry them but not sure.
 
OK I'm impacted by the Quincy dispute also (Sioux City locals, KTIV NBC.)

I've been through this WAY too many times, both with Directv and Dish. I did expect this one to be over quickly, as Quincy is not a huge media company like, say, Sinclair and others. In their entire company history (they're a relatively small family owned company based in Illinois) they've had less than one day total in terms of time of unresolved dispute.

While I usually am back and forth depending on the specific blackout in terms of "fault," in this case for various reasons I have recently gotten to know some of the main people at Quincy. They do own about 18 networks they've picked over the years, but they've always been very "down home," family style people. They're private so they don't publish their financials but I've seen them; their actual profit/take home cash flow is pretty slim. I've also seen more than I can talk about here, but Dish's claim that they asked for over double what they were paying is just flat out not true. Quincy has completed agreements with all the cable companies and Directv without any problems at all; a buddy I know at Directv said it was "a refreshingly friendly contract renewal, everyone being reasonable and working towards a win-win agreement."

I find it hard to believe that the family owners I know of Quincy have had amicable, reasonable resolutions with everyone from Time Warner, Cox, Drectv, etc, but then decided to go hard core with Dish.
This is why I'm wondering if it has anything to do with AutoHop.
 
Wasn’t that previous blackout with Directv in 2015? That would put their contract up for renewal here very shortly. Their profit margins being slim, does not mean they are not asking for a 200% increase. Sounds like they need to negotiate with the Big 4 better. That is likely where the majority of their money is going. It is not Dish’s responsibility to pay their bills. It is Dish’s responsibility to pay a fair price. Those are two completely different things, and any fans of the show “The Profit” that watched the Casery episode knows this.

I'll just say from what I've seen, and I know this is worthless because I can't share what I've seen, in this case my opinion is Dish is being a bit of a billion dollar bully in terms of their negotiating tactics and stance. "You're a breadcrumb compared to us, and just remember that we have control and all of your viewers will see our 24/7 message anytime they tune in to your channels, and what, you're going to put a message on your Facebook page?"
 
Yeah, the local media owners don't have any say in the Autohop area, that's all the major network guys.
I'm not saying that you're wrong, but why does my "moved" market of Minneapolis have an eight-day wait on KMSP (Fox) when all the other Fox stations are seven? That confuses me now.
 
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