CBS Plays Hardball with Cable

[minnow]

I've been reading the Philip Swan daily news blasts (tvpredictions.com) and it appears that CBS is playing hardball with cable companies regarding HD retransmission agreements. CBS has been making the rounds at the FCC trying to persuade the regulators not to impose binding arbitration between broadcasters and cable co's. This was in response to the Mediacom and Sinclair dispute. Now the New Orleans and Binghamton NY CBS affiliates are pulling or have yanked their feeds from the respective cable co's (Cox and TW). This if allowed to stand by the FCC will not bode well for upcoming transmission discussions with E* and the locals. Maybe the Cable Co's, Direct and Dish ought to get together and pull CBS altogether. Let's see how tough CBS is when the only persons able to see it are those with a set of rabbit ears. The FCC going to have to step in and impose a plan to resolve these disputes. Seems that these things are just retransmission agreements are exploding lately with many of the providers.

 

[Tower Guy]

I've been reading the Philip Swan daily news blasts (tvpredictions.com) and it appears that CBS is playing hardball with cable companies regarding HD retransmission agreements....... This if allowed to stand by the FCC will not bode well for upcoming transmission discussions with E* and the locals. Maybe the Cable Co's, Direct and Dish ought to get together and pull CBS altogether.

The DBS companies and cable are rivals. For them to join together openly would be an antitrust violation.

The real difference is that it is very common for the DBS companies to negotaite with the stations for carraige fees, but cable often refuses. Cable's big reason is cost to the end user, but DBS is known to pay the TV stations and also charges the consumer less.

This is nothing more than cable attempting to use the Federal Government as leverage in a negotiating ploy for maintaining their high profits. The government would be wise to stay out of cable's spitting match.