Fox vs. Time Warner / Bright House

[mrzrich]

All the news is talking about the Bowl Games. I couldn't care less...just work out the dispute before IDOL starts!!!!

 

[PeterPan09]

It's greed, pure and simple. Fox is demanding more $$ per subscriber and they're going to get it by using this tactic. People will be outraged over football, Glee and Idol, and the cable company will cave to keep their customers. A few months later, the cable company will raise rates to cover the demand from Fox. Then those same people will whine about their higher cable bills.

 

[mrzrich]

I know. Fox is campaigning acting like they are the victim. In the meantime they are demanding $1 per cable subscriber per month from Time Warner. If they get away with this the other broadcast networks will follow and our cable bills will go way up.

 

[PeterPan09]

They pulled this same crap with one of the cable companies in the NYC area-right before the World Series this year. All the Yankee fans went NUTS, and Fox got exactly what they wanted-and everyone is now paying more for cable.

 

[OKW Lover]

I hope our cable company dumps Fox. Its not worth the money to me.

 

[jlmarr]

Fox wants payment for their broadcast channels? Shouldn't those be free? If Fox objects they should move their popular shows to cable and part of a premium package.

 

[wdwpins]

How about just disconnecting the cable and attaching rabbit ears? I cut the cable cord over a year ago--I couldn't fathom paying for all of those infomercials. One Sunday morning I counted how many channels had them--it was 40 out of 160, or 25%. Now I have rabbit ears and get more channels than with the Brighthouse's basic antenna package. Yeah, there are still infomercials but I'm not paying to watch them, should I choose to watch them.

I know someone who has all of the upper cable TV tiers with a DVR. She banks about 200 hours of television a month. One day she parked herself in front of the TV for 17 hours total. Is it possible to be addicted to TV? Is TV a drug and is the DVR the drug dealer, providing the viewer with as much TV as he wants whenever he wants? This gal doesn't walk her dog, a Brittany Spaniel, gets her friends to go her grocery shopping for her ("on the way over, can you stop off at Publix and get a few things for me?"), and is morbidly obese. Any connection there to the amount of TV she watches? Know anyone like this?

 

[SusanWasHere]

I have Cablevision and woke up today to not having the Food Network anymore. No HGTV either, but that doesn't bother me. Apparently the company of these 2 channels was making ridiculous demands and Cablevision decided to not give in to them. I think that's great and all - but now I have no Food Network! I loved that channel and have gotten tons of recipes from them. So bummed

 

[starwood]

I have Cablevision and woke up today to not having the Food Network anymore. No HGTV either, but that doesn't bother me. Apparently the company of these 2 channels was making ridiculous demands and Cablevision decided to not give in to them. I think that's great and all - but now I have no Food Network! I loved that channel and have gotten tons of recipes from them. So bummed

Same here. I wrote to them and told them I will be looking into going back to Directv if they don't bring them back. You can bet our bills won't be lower but we are getting 2 less channels. 3/4 of the shows I have on DVR are HGTV.

 

[SusanWasHere]

I just noticed my bill went up $8 and I don't know why? I have to give them a call and see what's going on. They better put back Food Network!! I am so sick of companies just wringing us dry of our $. Esp in NJ!!

 

[starwood]

It went up because they raised the rates on the boxes, the remotes and the basic package.

 

[mrzrich]

Same here. I wrote to them and told them I will be looking into going back to Directv if they don't bring them back. You can bet our bills won't be lower but we are getting 2 less channels. 3/4 of the shows I have on DVR are HGTV.

See, but that's the reason the bills are going up. If the cable companies give into the $$$ demands from the networks, your bill will be through the roof. Then you'll switch to Direct TV cause the cable bill is too high. The cable company just can't win in this situation.

 

[ericafny]

To everyone who lost Food Network and HGTV today due to Cablevision...consider FIOS, I am. And by the way don't believe EVERYTHING Cablevision tells you either...they are pigs! They own most of Long Island and I really think their greed has gotten the best of them...just my two cents..

 

[mf1973]

To everyone who lost Food Network and HGTV today due to Cablevision...consider FIOS, I am. And by the way don't believe EVERYTHING Cablevision tells you either...they are pigs! They own most of Long Island and I really think their greed has gotten the best of them...just my two cents..

I can't wait until FIOS is available by me. I've usually been a big supporter of cablevision, but this food network nonsense is a huge deal for my family...

 

[doconeill]

The TW/Fox crisis has been averted...the two came to an agreement. So now all you TW subscribers can continue to watch Idol, Glee...and most of all, Dollhouse. Oh, wait...no one was watching that...

Just heard about Cablevision vs. Scripps (i.e. Food Network and HGTV). Sounds like Cablevision basically showed them the door and then locked it and called security, then got a restraining order...I don't know what the "demands" Scripps was making were, but it sounds like you'll never see them on Cablevision again.

I don't think that the broadcast networks should be making any monetary demands at all. They should be free to carry, with the cost of the networks paid for by the advertising just as they always are. However, the cable companies should not be permitted to insert their own local advertising like they do with the cable networks (and I'm not sure they do on the broadcasts). After all, cable TV started as a way for a community to put up a single antenna and everyone could get the signal - that's why the old abbreviation for cable TV is "CATV" - for "Community Antenna TV". Then it got commercialized...

I think this stems from when the FCC allowed networks to have direct ownership of stations. Now they have far greater bargaining power against the cablecos, who previously only needed to deal with the local owners for the most part.

I remember when the regulations were that the broadcast stations had two choices - they could demand that they be on the channel number they are identified with (if technically feasible - back in the dark ages we had fewer cable "channels" than UHF/VHF slots) IF they were carried, OR demand that they were carried (but no choice of channel number). That was it...

With so many networks now asking the cablecos to pay them to carry their signals, even though they sell the advertising on the programming, our bills are just going to skyrocket or we'll need multiple providers to get all the programming we wanted, or cablecos will need to go to a total ala carte programming model where you pay directly for each individual station you want to receive. Or the government steps back in.