[opendtv] Another take on saving broadcasting...

EXECUTIVE SESSION WITH JOHN TUPPER
Save Stations With Programming, Retrans

TVNEWSDAY, Jul 14 2009, 8:20 AM ET
Here's a fresh take on the troubles of the TV station business: It's not the economy or the Internet or the collapse of the domestic auto industry. It's the programming.
According to John Tupper, a small-market broadcaster who now chairs the Fox affiliate group, broadcasting's only chance of recovering billions of lost revenue over the past few years and setting new highs in gross receipts will be to put on more and better programming and reverse the slide in ratings.
And the key to improved programming is retransmission consent, he says. If broadcasters are going to get the best, they are going to need retrans fees measured in dollars not in cents. In this interview with TVNewsday Editor Harry A. Jessell, Tupper, owner of the Fox affiliate in Minot-Bismarck, N.D. (KNDX-KXND), makes his case for hefty retrans fees and expresses his hope that Fox will follow NBC's lead in offering to be the affiliates' agent in getting them. 

An edited transcript:

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2009/07/14/daily.4/?page=1


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