[opendtv] Re: FCC Eliminates Simulcast Rules
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 08:26:45 -0400
At 9:24 AM -0700 9/18/04, John Willkie wrote:
>They're not entitled, or they're not entitled to mandatory must carry
>coverage?
Not entitled to mandatory must carry.
>
>Seems to me that they're entitled to work that out with cable companies
>pursuant to retrans consent.
Absolutely. This is "closer" to a market driven approach, however, it
still can involve the use of "greenmail," allowing the station to use
popular content to gain carriage of less popular content. That is,
the station can threaten to withhold its primary network signal if
unless the cable system carries the entire multiplex.
But this kind of negotiation may be VERY different, especially if the
station's multiplex contains programming that is already carried by
the cable system. The big win for broadcasters would be must carry of
their multiplex. At that point they would be in a position to carry
popular (previously) non-broadcast networks and force the cable
systems to drop their carriage of those networks; and the cable
system would lose their ability to insert local commercials into the
networks.
Of course, there could be some middle ground. The cable system might
carry both their version and the version in the station multiplex.
But this creates another dilemma: does the cable system, charge a
subscriber fee for every home in their market when the content is
duplicated on a broadcast channel?
There are lot's of sticky questions to deal with here. Personally, I
believe that there is nothing wrong with real competition. Let cable,
DBS and OTA all carry the same networks and control those networks
(and the ads they insert) independently. Any subscriber fees would be
based on the actual number of homes that subscribe to a particular
channel. This would work very well with an ala carte subscription,
where the consumer could choose which channels they want and pay only
for those to which they subscribe.
Regards
Craig
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