[opendtv] Re: Viewers File Suit Over Bundling

At 4:01 PM -0700 9/26/07, johnwillkie wrote:

Aside from my former operation of a broadcast tv station, broadcast tv has
cost me $0.00 in my lifetime.  But, perhaps you are older, and your figure
is a bit higher.  Maybe $0.01 or less?



Maybe two cents.

But that's all an advertiser supported medium is worth to me.
This is an evolutionary problem, as has been the reality for the entire DTV transition. The broadcasters are not smart or visionary, but they do wield a great deal of power. Power used to rebuild their empire as the opportunity has presented itself.
The media conglomerates did not create the circumstances by which they have been able to charge twice for their products. The cable industry came up with the idea of subscriber fees as a way to help compete with the well funded broadcast networks. This was possible because they had a 1 to 1 relationship with subscribers and a billing department to collect the fees. Over a decade they were able to develop enough content to compete with the networks. Then the broadcasters used their political clout to create the conditions to regain their former dominance.
The 1992 Cable Re-regulation Act, together with the laissez faire government attitude about acquisitions and mergers in the '90s, created the fertile environment that gave birth to the conglomerates. The broadcast networks were combined with the studios and used retrans consent to build powerful new subscription networks. And then they went on a buying spree, gobbling up most of the independent cable network. In the process we would up with Time Warner, Disney/ABC, GE/NBC/Universal, CBS/Viacom and Fox/Fox/Fox (broadcast, studio, cable).
They then started milking the oligopoly, and have managed to shift the burden of broadcast station compensation from from the networks directly to cable and DBS subscribers.
The vehicle that has made this possible is the extended basic cable bundle. IF you want the good stuff - which is increasingly only available via extended basic and comparable DBS packages, you MUST pay for everything in the bundle. As a result, the cost for the average cable/DBS subscriber has more than doubled since 1992.
You are wrong John. These guys have a very storng case and they know exactly who they are suing. 

Regards
Craig


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