Hearst Television contract up for renewal on Time Warner

[trev57]

Well, TMJ4 is certainly taking advantage of this. Steve Chamraz just thanked WISN viewers for choosing them and encouraged them to keep watching.

[Jack 1000]

Well, TMJ4 is certainly taking advantage of this. Steve Chamraz just thanked WISN viewers for choosing them and encouraged them to keep watching.

I hope WISN ratings tank because of this!  And they will!  The longer they hold out, more and more viewers will dump them and that means less revenue for them!

Greedy corporations like, Hearst, who want a 300% rate increase!  Get real and play fair, than negotiations can continue at a price and options that customers can afford.  We should not even have to pay for for channels available for free over the air.  Television used to be a public trust, not anymore.

Jack

[budda]

I have Dish, they gave me a roko, 5 dollars off for Blockbuster, per month,10 dollars a month for 12 months. And all the movies channels for 6 months free. What is TW doing for it's costumers?

Sorry as a result of dropping AMC for same reason.

[jjallou]

I hope WISN ratings tank because of this!  And they will!  The longer they hold out, more and more viewers will dump them and that means less revenue for them!

Greedy corporations like, Hearst, who want a 300% rate increase!  Get real and play fair, than negotiations can continue at a price and options that customers can afford.  We should not even have to pay for for channels available for free over the air.  Television used to be a public trust, not anymore.

Jack

What we don't know is 300% of "what"?
A penny? 10 cents? 20 cents? I really don't think they're getting what TWC shells out for ESPN (around $4 per sub) a channel I pay for but NEVER watch.

Dish Network - Without Locals. Gee I still get WISN!

FYI - all corporations are greedy. That's what keeps them in business. Who ends up with less money.....you do. It all comes down to choices. Either switch providers, put up an antenna to supplement your existing provider (when this crap happens), or read a good e-book. Will WISN's ratings tank? Maybe/maybe not. Perhaps they'll do an antenna giveaway...................for those who are suffering.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/60774/numbers-justify-station-retrans-hikes

[uwgrad]

or another ABC station will be imported, or even WBAY in Green Bay (which airs in SD on the Plymouth and Howards Grove Time Warner systems).

Well, that won't be happening.  From what I've read elsewhere, the markets where Time Warner is importing ABC stations from elsewhere is only because the local Hearst station didn't properly notify TW of their non-duplication protection desire.

WISN seems to have made that wish known because this is the slate that popped up on WBAY in the Plymouth TW system a couple of days ago - before the WISN blackout.  This is only during network programming.  When local programming is scheduled, it is allowed through.  This has occasionally popped up from time to time on WFRV (and possibly WGBA - but that one I'm not sure of).



When Lin TV (WLUK) and TW had their big dispute back in 2008, WLUK was blacked out on TW as well, and has never come back to the Plymouth area.

[mrschimpf]

Well, that won't be happening.  From what I've read elsewhere, the markets where Time Warner is importing ABC stations from elsewhere is only because the local Hearst station didn't properly notify TW of their non-duplication protection desire.

WISN seems to have made that wish known because this is the slate that popped up on WBAY in the Plymouth TW system a couple of days ago - before the WISN blackout.  This is only during network programming.  When local programming is scheduled, it is allowed through.  This has occasionally popped up from time to time on WFRV (and possibly WGBA - but that one I'm not sure of).

When Lin TV (WLUK) and TW had their big dispute back in 2008, WLUK was blacked out on TW as well, and has never come back to the Plymouth area.

Makes me even more happy to have Charter in Sheboygan; they have not done any blackouts on the Green Bay channels, ever. In fact because Sheboygan County is in the "significantly viewed" category for both the Milwaukee and Green Bay DMA's, they shouldn't be allowed to do that. This is one of the reasons I loathed AT&T's "TV First" legislation that outlawed local franchise control; in the old days you filed a complaint with the proper office in city hall and it got taken care of. Now it gets to go through Milwaukee and buried in red tape forever.

[PONIES]

I have Dish, they gave me a roko, 5 dollars off for Blockbuster, per month,10 dollars a month for 12 months. And all the movies channels for 6 months free. What is TW doing for it's costumers?

Sorry as a result of dropping AMC for same reason.

Why should Time Warner have to do anything for its customers?

WISN is available for free over the air. All of Time Warner's customers can already get WISN for free.

Time Warner shouldn't be carrying any affiliate that expects money for carriage.

[Jack 1000]

Why should Time Warner have to do anything for its customers?

WISN is available for free over the air. All of Time Warner's customers can already get WISN for free.

Time Warner shouldn't be carrying any affiliate that expects money for carriage.

My Thoughts:

Much of this mess stems from the Cable Regulatory Act of 1992, which got the Feds involved in something that has spun out of control.  Before that time, cable operators and OTA networks all had the regular networks on, for free.

The feds gave a choice to broadcast networks.  They could either go the route of "Must Carry" or "Retransmission Consent."  The OTA networks saw "Retransmission Consent" as a way to make more money to pay their advertisers and went with that option.  Commercials for quality sponsored products have now given rise to infomercials, and many of the infomercial products are scams.  But the stations run disclaimers that because those infomercials are third-party ads, they are not responsible for their content.  They are just looking for the cheapest way to sell air time.  Stations can't afford to rely on income from commercial paid products anymore, so they have to rely on cable, dish, and U-Verse to give them money for their advertisers.

The 1992 legislation is out-dated.  I think that it should be revised where every effort should be worked on to get a fair price for customers and businesses in harsh economic times, but if they can't do that, a neutral mediator arbitrator would have the right to be brought in to work out long term retransmission agreements where a rate compromise would be worked out by the arbitrator, WITHOUT disrupting service to customers.  Customers should not be pawns by losing their channels like some sort of "punishment" to them, just because two multi-million, billion dollar companies can't come to a retransmission agreement.  This squabbling is like two-little grade school kids fighting on the playground!

Jack

[budda]

Why should Time Warner have to do anything for its customers?

WISN is available for free over the air. All of Time Warner's customers can already get WISN for free.

Time Warner shouldn't be carrying any affiliate that expects money for carriage.

 You are right....But.... As a PR move, keeping subs happy, keeps subs. It's not about what they are owed, but what will oil the squeaking wheel. If as a sub you benefit from it that, wouldn't that be a good thing? Right?

[trev57]

Apparently the numbers are on Hearst's side...

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/60774/numbers-justify-station-retrans-hikes

[Jack 1000]

Apparently the numbers are on Hearst's side...

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/60774/numbers-justify-station-retrans-hikes

Although that article appears to be very biased in favor of Hearst's position in this debate, it is still the customers who suffer with both blackouts and higher rates.  A compromise has to be established somehow.  The business models are based on out-dated 1992 legislation.  Mediation may have to step in.

I don't know if I am convinced that Ala-Carte price is the answer, because every cable/network station will think that they are the most important on the planet, and everyone else is secondary.  Customers will wind up maybe paying a little less, but they may lose a lot of channels.  The "popular" channels will be favored in negotiation and placement.  It will be structured where customers will have to take the popular channels just to get "niche" channels that they like.  When you add on all the service levels, Cable, Internet, Phone Service, DVR, you might wind up paying $5.00 less than what you are paying now, if that.

This squabbling between multi-million dollar companies has no longer made television a public trust.  When customers are held hostage because of stations being pulled due to fee disputes, trust is lost.

Jack

[trev57]

And so the real mud slinging has begun...WISN is sharing this blog calling TWC a "bully" on their website.

http://www.milwaukeemag.com/article/7172012-TimeWarnerAtItAgain

[LoadStar]

And now Nexstar, operator of the stations that Time Warner imported into some areas to replace the now missing Hearst stations, is suing Time Warner. They believe that by importing the stations without their approval, Time Warner is violating their retransmission agreement.

[PONIES]

What Time Warner really needs to do is start distributing DVRs with antenna inputs on the back of them and ATSC tuners built in. Then have the ATSC tuner integrate seamlessly with the Navigator guide/QAM tuners as if the channels they are receiving over the air are being carried over Time Warner's cables.

They could drop all the over-the-air channels off their cable service and make it standard for all TV installs for new customers to come with an antenna setup as well. 99% of customers can get these channels over-the-air; the only reason they're subscribing to cable for them is because they're noobs. They'll continue to subscribe to cable for them even if they aren't coming over Time Warner's cables because of the DVR interface integration; the noobs won't know how to unplug the coax from the back of their DVR and plug it into their TVs so Time Warner has nothing to lose.

That would really make these affiliates rage.

[Gregg Lengling]

TWC is just the tip of the Iceburg.  All delivery providers....TWC/Cox/Comcast/Verizon/ATT/Dish/Directv and all the others are just hastening their doom.  While local stations have a little push with Digital coverage to tell people to hook an antenna up, the Cable only channels don't...but they can go to the future.

The Future:  all delivery Via IP....just like netflix and others these groups will start selling streaming subscriptions to their channel packages and there will be no middle man to mark it up.  This will be the beginning of ala carte programming delivered by the Producers of the product.

As more and more Internet connected TV's are produced and the applications are refined this will become the dominant method of delivery.

Maybe not tomorrow but sooner than you think