Programming Dispute Looming: Local TV LLC....dispute avoided

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Our Local TV / Oak Hill Capital Partners affiliate station just sent out this same August 1st deadline notice for their CBS WHNT (19) Huntsville AL station to be dropped from DirecTV.

I'm really sick of each of these local stations presenting it as if they are alone and being singled out in a dispute with DirecTV. They never give all the facts and point out to their customers that they are owned by a larger company that owns several stations, and it is their owner that is in disagreement with DirecTV, and it effects more than their single local station.

It's also a big problem that these carriage dispute negotiations often remain unpublicized until the very last moment, when the network decides things aren't going their way so they "give up" and surprise their viewers with the storyline that big bad DirecTV is taking away their network in only a matter of days. I know this is a negotiation tactic and both sides are guilty of making it that way, but it feels like another reason their business model is doomed in the long term.

For example, the company Local TV has bought a domain name/site to advertise this dispute for our local station:

http://keepwhnt.com/

Local TV bought that domain name on Aug 24th. So they've been aware and preparing since last week that they were going to remove their stations from DirecTV and negotiate in public and use their viewers as a wedge. Look how well that worked out for the big networks recently.
 
last year when the whole DIrctv vs Fox thing was going down, I could have sworn that Local TV LLC allowed Fox to negotiate for them (since Fox owned a bunch of those stations previously)

or am I dreaming?
 
the best part of those "stock" webpages like that? (where its the same wording just different affiliate)

the comments are supporting DIrectv in a lot of cases :)
 
the comments are supporting DIrectv in a lot of cases :)
What customers are going to care outside of those who subscribe to DIRECTV?

Of course the flaw in that logic is that any viewer that isn't using OTA as a primary source will likely be at risk eventually.
 
What customers are going to care outside of those who subscribe to DIRECTV?

obviously you are confused. These tv stations post the old "oh poor me" thing against Directv and folks are seeing through that crap and are supporting Directv. There are some that are "oh I'm dropping Directv and going to ______________" but there are more positive posts for Dirctv :)
 
Iceberg said:
last year when the whole DIrctv vs Fox thing was going down, I could have sworn that Local TV LLC allowed Fox to negotiate for them (since Fox owned a bunch of those stations previously)

or am I dreaming?

I remember that too Ice. Local TV was supposed to let News Corp negotiate on their behalf for at least the Fox affiliates that Local had bought from News.
 
obviously you are confused. These tv stations post the old "oh poor me" thing against Directv and folks are seeing through that crap and are supporting Directv.
I can't remember the last time that someone reasonably sided with the content provider in such arguments (other than a hardcore ESPN apologist or two). The provider is the party trying to make a radical change in the contract, not the carrier. It is a pretty safe bet that the content isn't going to become twice as good.
 
I remember that too Ice. Local TV was supposed to let News Corp negotiate on their behalf for at least the Fox affiliates that Local had bought from News.

Now that a local media blog picked up the story, thy confirmed that is indeed the case.
 
this shows the difference between Dish and Directv.......in most cases Directv gets it done while dish continues to squabble

glad to hear they reached an agreement
 
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