The May 31 deadline for a new retransmission consent agreement between Granite Broadcasting and cable company Mediacom has come and gone without a new agreement, and as a result the affected stations are no longer available on the respective cable systems.
Stations involved include KBJR-TV in Duluth MN-Superior WI, WISE-TV in Fort Wayne IN and WEEK-TV in Peoria IL.
Granite said in a statement to local viewers, “Thus far, we are disappointed in the lack of progress in our negotiations, especially since we have successfully reached deals with every major cable, satellite and telecommunications company that recognizes our fair market value. Without fair and equitable treatment, local TV stations will not be able to continue to provide top quality news, sports, entertainment, and other local programming that is most important to you.
“Mediacom profits by including broadcast stations like ours in its channel line-up and like any other business, it should pay fair market value which amounts to only pennies a day per station/per subscriber, for the ability to resell our stations’ programming to you. Remember, you are already paying for our local programming as part of your monthly bill.
“We will continue to negotiate with Mediacom. Unfortunately, we do not know if, or when, an agreement will be reached. In the meantime, we hope you will continue supporting local television and watch us through alternative means including free over the air service via antenna, through DirectTV, Dish Network or another cable provider.
“We also encourage you to call Mediacom and tell them you want your local television stations!
“Thank you for supporting LOCAL television.”
American Television Alliance spokesman leveled blame for the situation squarely with Granite. He said, “This blackout is just the latest in a growing national scourge as broadcasters use old laws to gouge consumers for what is supposed to be ‘free’ over the air programming. It’s time for Congress to end these broadcaster special interest giveaways so TV fans get their shows instead of a black screen.
“The bareknuckle tactics are all too familiar: a broadcaster waits until a popular TV event is on the horizon and then gives fans the ultimatum, pay up big-time or get blacked out. It’s not fair and it’s not pretty, but sadly, it is legal because Congress hasn’t fixed the laws.”
RBR+TVBR observation: It takes two to reach an impasse. Let’s say your service is worth $10, and you offer it to a local company which needs your service to conduct its own business for $8, and the other company still refuses to pay.
The company that won’t accept the discounted rate in this case has forced the impasse.
That has been the situation in the retransmission consent battle for the past several years. Broadcasters supply by far the most viewers to a local cable system, but were not compensated at a rate commensurate with what cable channels were getting.
Add to this the fact that it is local broadcasters who foot the bill for important local news, information and emergency programming that would otherwise be unavailable to a local cable system. Cable channels don’t have to worry about anything like that – they just put on whatever they think might attract a crowd regardless of whether or not it has any redeeming value, much less whether it serves the needs of the public.
As a general thing, we believe that both the broadcast and MVPD communities seem to be arriving at a consensus as to where retransmission fees will be. The end-of-the year retransmission war season was very quiet and there hasn’t been much negative activity since. And even when it seems to be high, the fact is that most negotiations end peacefully and on time.
On a final note, we wonder what “special event” is coming up on the television horizon? We will confess that at our house we are looking forward to the return of Bill Maher after a two-week layoff, but he’s on a cable channel. Are we missing something?
