- NEWS
- SPORTS
- Lakers rout Thunder 3 hours & 35 minutes ago
- O.C. football: Updated playoff brackets
- USC at a crossroads 2 hours & 42 minutes ago
- Bruins have their sights set on victory 2 hours & 35 minutes ago
- BUSINESS
- ENTERTAINMENT
- LIFE
- TRAVEL
- OPINION
Cable TV bills will go up if Fox, CBS get their way
October 28th, 2009, 7:57 am · 49 Comments · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Fox TV parent News Corp. and CBS Corp. are demanding that cable providers pay a monthly fee for the broadcast TV station.
News Corp. wants $1 per customer per month from Time Warner Cable Inc, reports the WSJ. Traditionally, cable TV providers haven’t paid paid cash fees from over-the-air broadcast networks.
If News Corp. gets its way, that’s a minimum of $12 added to a customers bill. The Wall Street Journal didn’t report how much CBS is seeking.
The broadcasters say they need more money as advertising slumps and cable companies, like Time Warner and Comcast, start their new adventures in offering the same TV shows online (see earlier story on “Time Warner plans to offer popular shows online — to paying customers).
Got a question for Time Warner Cable? Here’s your chance to get it answered. Click HERE
News Corp’s contract with Time Warner expires at the end of the year, which means if a new contract isn’t signed, Fox could be pulled from Time Warner. This is definitely not unheard of. Remember last Christmas? Viacom, which owns Comedy Central and Nickalodeon, demanded more money per user from Time Warner. The battle over what is known as carriage fees grew so critical that Viacom ran a scrolling message below most programs telling fans to call their cable provider and demand to keep the channel. The two resolved the fee issue just hours before the New Year (see ““).
Read the Wall Street Journal story: Broadcasters Seek Cable-TV Fees
More TV news:
49 Comments
Leave a Reply
-
ADVERTISEMENT
-
Welcome to Gadgetress.com
Tune in for TV, cell phone and Internet services news at Gadgetress.com. Send tips and gripes to gadgetress@ocregister.com.
THE BLOGGER: ABOUT ME*
The Orange County Register 625 N Grand Ave., Santa Ana, 92701
Tamara 'the Gadgetress' Chuang
E-MAIL: gadgetress@ocregister.com
SIGN UP: Get Gadgetress by e-mail
MOBILE:
Get Gadgetress on your phone
SUBSCRIBE:
-
Miss the gadgets?
I dropped gadget coverage because of low readership but if 500 people sign up, I'll bring it back. Just subscribe by e-mail or click the blue image to pick the RSS reader of your choice (via Feedburner). All who subscribe will be notified if gadget coverage returns and until then, you'll automatically receive any gadget reports.
-
Scan the latest headlines faster.
-
To view local listings CLICK
HERE
Or visit your TV provider: * Cox Cable * Time Warner Cable * DirecTV * Dish Network * AT&T U-verse * Verizon FiOS *
Watch a show online HERE. -
Get TV/mobile help on Twitter
-
AT&T U-verse impasse
-
- * Guide to TV services
* Story archiveClick for more:
*Time Warner Cable
*Cox Cable
*DirecTV
*Verizon FiOS
*AT&T U-verse
*DISH Network
*Guide to Mobile services
*Story archive
*Digital TV transition
*Story archive
* PC Club
* Q&A archive
*iPhone 3GS
*iGirl, Apple
CES 2009
*Story archive
*Blizzard Blog
*Ezra Chatterton -
The North Orange County Computer Club answers your tech questions. Visit the PC Club page and the Stump archives.Recent Q&As:
>>Click HERE for more PC Club answers 
More O.C. Tech News- Fandango Sells a Record-Breaking 18% of 'New Moon' Opening Weekend Box Office November 22, 2009
- Electronic Game Card, Inc. Files 10-Q for Period Ending September 30, 2009 November 20, 2009
- Autobytel Extends Deal With Kelley Blue Book November 20, 2009
- HireRight Names Operations VP November 19, 2009
- YouMail: Sprint Users Can Now Use Us For Free November 19, 2009
- Semtech Buys Sierra Monolithics For $180M November 18, 2009
- InteliCloud Adds Former Apple CEO To Board November 18, 2009
- Break Partners With Sony, Others November 18, 2009
- Symwave Taps Broadcom For CFO November 18, 2009
- Thanks to our sponsors! November 17, 2009
-
-
ADVERTISEMENT
Here's a list of TV/mobile companies helping consumers one tweet at a time. 
Our cable bill will, yet again, go up while the choices of channels and programming continue to go down. We pay WAY too much for basic cable as it is!
Soon cable will be GONE from our house and we’ll be switched to satellite - in process now with researching and calling and getting the best deal. Even a mediocre deal is cheaper than the basic cable costs we’re paying - and we get ALL those channels that Time Warner took away and wants us to “tier up” to get.
Time Warner is just downright bad, bad, bad!
Cable TV Sucks! Never go with Cox Communications! They are the worst!
I couldn’t agree more. Cox is the worst I have ever used.
Time Warner is horrible! When I call to ask a question I get India. Whatever… Satellite sounds better and better everyday.
I’ll most likely be going over to U-Verse. Time Warner’s game playing, overall attitude of taking ver the cable world, ridiculous pricing and obnoxious, misleading and smarmy commercials have been wearing thin for quite some time now.
Time Warner’s days, with luck, will be tinged with hard times, financially and technologically. I’ve about had it with them.
Trust me, if you have Time Warner they will just drop CBS and Fox tv just as they did in the Midwest a couple of years ago.
Wait, aren’t CBS and FOX free over-the-air? Since when can basic, regular channels, charge cable providers? Something’s not right with this story.
“Something’s not right with this story”
Something’s wrong, alright, but it’s not with this story. Search for “Retransmission consent” and “Must-carry rules” for the whole story. A brief version is here.
How could something this stupid happen? Basically, the politicians were more afraid of the broadcast stations and networks than they were of the cable companies. And look at the comments in this thread. The vast majority of the comments automatically blame the cable company for this. I hate the cable company as much as the next guy, but how anyone could see this as their fault is beyond me.
As crappy as cable TV is, perhaps we need a government option there too… Oh yeah, we kinda have one- antennas.
I hope the cable companies stick their middle fingers to fox and cbs and install high def antennas on houses to pull in those stations.
I am with Time Warner now, but am going to dump them soon. They have the WORST service I have ever experienced. TW SUCKS!!!!
Dump my Cable and watch regular TV .. Not missing anything…
I even found Better Shows to watch
Drop CBS and FOX, I can watch CBS for free on another tv not connected to cable.
Dump TV entirely. It’s full of nothing but trashy “entertainment” and highly-biased “news”. The internet already does everything you need from TV and much more. TV is obsolete.
I did exactly that 5 years ago, and I’m loving life even more!
Yep, I agree. Although I do watch nature shows with my kids on PBS.
Who cares? You can get beautiful HDTV programming from the airwaves and every cable/sat program is available on the ‘net within minutes of its airing. Also, there’s tons of live news shows online.
livenewscameras.com
Ala-Cart!
Ala-Cart!
Ala-Cart!
Ala-Cart!
Ala-Cart!
Ala-Cart!
Did I misread something? If they’re asking $1 per month per customer, is that $12 increase per month or per year?
Anyways, cable is a waste of time. Regular TV should be sufficient for most people. My view is that if you really need cable, you’re watching too much TV. Get out and ride your bike, go for a walk, visit with friends, family, volunteer at your church or temple. Do something constructive and lose some weight along the way! What a concept!
The pitiful thing about this is that cable you can raise rates as high as they want, and some, if not most, will complain but continue paying.
My choices are history channel, discovery channel and nickelodian. Think that is over the air? Go back to your thinking on the matter and come up with a more intelligent comment.
BTW, I dont do any of those things you suggest after 9:00PM. Nor do most people.
What Fox and CBS don’t comprehend that Cable TV as well as Dish & Direct TV are doing them a Service by providing in many cases a better signal to people in each broadcast area. Also, people may live in an area where they might get some local channels but not all. Cable TV should be charging FOX and CBS for providing this service, not the other way around. I have Dish and all you have to do is hook up an antenna to the Dish box, do a scan, and bingo you have your local channels in HD. If Dish is forced to to charge for the local CBS and FOX, I will simply drop the locals and use antenna.
DirectTV’s Parent company is News Corp.
DirectTV’s parent company was News Corp. Liberty Media now owns DirecTV.
It had to do with untangling some assets between the two, and Rupert wanted out of DirecTV.
Time Warner also needs to the extra money to produce all their Spanish speaking ads and promos. They are cosiderate though and do provide English subtitle. What an anti-american organization they have become. If you don’t speak English GTFO
The only countries that have actual codified laws restricting what language media can use are dictatorships. Are you saying you want to destroy people’s first-amendment rights to free speech?
Keep in mind, there is NO law making English the official language of this country.
Que? en ingles por favor
You show up in every cable post and bitch about Time Warner’s Spanish ads. I guess I shouldn’t expect anything less from The Register, but it’s still mind boggling. Please realize that they aren’t “anti-American”, but “pro-profit”. Assuming you are some kind of conservative/libertarian, this is exactly the kind of thing you people are always going on and on about: “The Free Market”. Well, guess what!? Spanish speaking households are a “market” and any company doing business here is not doing their job if they don’t attempt to tap that market for profit. I assure you they’ve done research telling them that the number of Spanish speaking households who would pay for cable is larger than the number of angry, racist cranks who would cancel it because of a silly TV ad.
It appears to be unanimous that TW sucks! I pay almost $200/mo. for my “All in one” package that was supposed to save me money. I’ve not saved a dime, and am seriously thinking of dumping them all together. As soon as I can find a better alternative, I’m out of there.
who cares about fox and cbs…i’m only concerned if fox sports is included if tw decided to drop fox…fox is crappy anyway…the only thing i’ve watch on cbs is the sunday nfl game…otherwise, i don’t really watch anything on cbs…and like some posters had mentioned…those two channels are available using an antenna…
We now have “Crime Warner” and was with “Cox Su….” cable. They are both horrible. Our next move will be to Direct TV, which has its own set of problems. Oh well, this is where we need some intervention. As far as Fox not being included in the line up- as far as I’m concerned, the world would be a much calmer place if it weren’t around.
Most of what we watch is on “free” TV anyway. We used to have Time Warner and now have satellite, but wouldn’t miss it if they start jacking us around like Time Warner.
Network, cable, or satellite. Doesn’t matter. There is no such thing as “must-see TV,” an oxymoron if there ever was one.
Wait, so if we DON’T want Fox or CBS, can we pay less? I rarely watch TV besides PBS. I usually just use my TV for Netflix. I get my news online and gave up TV “news” years ago. Fox is not to my liking and I don’t even know what is on CBS. Why can’t we choose the channels we’d like and pay according to what we want to watch?
I just got AT&T U-Verse and I love it!! AT&T’s customer service is great too!!
I’m a DirectTV converter from Dish but frankly if I can ever manage to let go of my addiction I’d drop cable/dish all together and just watch stuff for free on the internet. I’m told (I’m no techno geek) that many laptops allow you to do something with an HDMI cable that you connect to your tv and just watch your shows for free and in great quality.
It has to stop,we are being raped. ALA CART is the answer, I do not watch Spanish speaking channels. Korean Chinese but I still pay for them. Ala Cart If you use it you pay for it if not you don’t.
Television sucks big ones.
Netflix - HULU- YouTube are the future.
Mindless drones on television feeding the same tired arguments and feces to the mindless fools willing to pay the bill.
Hulu was founded in March 2007 by NBC Universal and News Corp (FOX)
Dog-Gone-It! No wonder Time Warner can’t give us clear viewing channels without video distortion…everyones complaining and threatening to leave them….putting them into panic mode!!!
Not worth their prices if it continues, I might add!
diddly-squat for naught says:
October 28, 2009 at 10:45 am
Dog-Gone-It! No wonder Time Warner can’t give us clear viewing channels without video distortion…everyones complaining and threatening to leave them….putting them into panic mode!!!
Not worth their prices if it continues, I might add!
I am having that same problem on many channels for about a month. Fine on the regular TV’s but screwed up on the on with the box. The same thing happens at my mom-in-laws tv w/the box ’s but far fewer distorted channels.
I say dump Faux. It is worthless.
After years of high costs and terrible service, I left Time Warner for DirecTV. I was able to get DirecTV into two homes for a total cost that was less per month than what I was paying TW, and after almost 5 years have had zero problems - best move I could have made!
There are better alternatives - search them out!
Never get the “all in one package”. You don’t want all your services with one company. If TimeWarner cable goes down, you could lose ALL your services. At least keep your phone service with someone else.
Time Warner is horrible! If you call to ask a question you will get India.
Stan says: October 28, 2009 at 10:16 am
>What Fox and CBS don’t comprehend that Cable TV as well as Dish & Direct TV are doing them a Service by providing in many cases a better signal to people in each broadcast area<
.
Exactly!
All of the renters in my apartment in north OC have to rely on cable for local TV because rabbit ears will not pick up a single channel off the new digital TV!
(the apartment owners wont allow Satellite and are not smart enough to put up a master antenna)
I wish Totally Worthless Crap would stop paying for all the Home Shopping, Cooking, Music and Hispanic channels that I never watch (maybe they can drop the price from the $65 I am forced to pay now!)
It’s against the law to not allow a Dish, isn’t it?
Apartment dwellers can put a satellite dish in their personal area (balcony), but not in common areas (the roof). Here’s what the FCC says: Click HERE.
Indeed it is. It’s called the OTARD rule — here is the link:
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html
A portion of the rule reads: “The rule applies to antenna users who live in a multiple dwelling unit building, such as a condominium or apartment building, if the antenna user has an exclusive use area in which to install the antenna. ‘Exclusive use’ means an area of the property that only you, and persons you permit, may enter and use to the exclusion of other residents. For example, your condominium or apartment may include a balcony, terrace, deck or patio that only you can use, and the rule applies to these areas.”
CableH8tor, I would suggest following up on this and showing this to your apt manager/landlord. If he/she still resists, the FCC has a toll-free number you can call and I’m sure they can assist you further.
Tamara,
What is the difference between this and “retransmission rights” which also involves payment of fees to local over-the air tv stations? As I understand it, retransmission rights are usually paid by cable and satellite companies once a year or sometimes for a longer contractual period.
Its too bad Verizon fios isn’t in our area - I’d go with that one.
Foxs doesn’t need another dime. As they can do is yell. Another over seas company trying to get into our pockets.