Three Citadel Stations Prepare To Go Dark At Midnight
No détente as Citadel, DirecTV butt heads over retrans
By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/31/2010 4:18:31 PM
Citadel Communications' ABC affiliate WOI Des Moines, ABC affiliate KLKN Lincoln (Neb.) and CBS affiliate WHBF Davenport (Iowa) are set to go dark for DirecTV subscribers after midnight central time tonight as the broadcaster and satellite TV operator continue to clash over retransmission consent payment.
Citadel and DirecTV met March 26 to negotiate, but the two sides still see the issue differently.
A DirecTV spokesperson says Citadel is demanding a 100% increase in fees and refuses to keep its signals on past deadline so the parties can negotiate without viewers losing the stations' programming.
Citadel's Ray Cole did not return a call at presstime.
The affected stations are featuring "Important DirecTV Subscriber Advisory" banners on their websites' home pages.
"We have made numerous compromises in an effort to satisfy DIRECTV's demands," read the statement. "We are disappointed, however, in DIRECTV's refusal-so far-to conclude a mutually acceptable agreement in a timely fashion."
Basketball fans who may not be able to see the NCAA championship games next week on WHBF are advised to get their CBS programming through other providers. "Should DIRECTV terminate carriage of CBS4, you may continue to receive it free, over the air; or from your local cable company; or from the DISH Network," reads the statement.
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Diane M. Grassi wrote:
> After all, it is the federal government that started
> this mess with the mandated digital conversion which
> was not handled properly by the entities involved.
It was the federal government that started this mess all right, but the mess dates back a lot farther than the digital transition. It started with the grotesquely-misnamed "Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992." This act created the must-carry/retrans-consent business model in the first place. Under federal law;
- A commercial network-affiliate broadcast station licensee has exclusive right to distribute its network's programming within its DMA.
- The licensee has the right to impose must-carry or retrans-consent on secondary carriers (CATV, satellite, etc.)
- Secondary carriers are prohibited from picking up the same network programming from any other same-network broadcast station.
In any other business, this arrangement would be called a monopoly. In the commercial broadcasting business, it's called "consumer protection."
Neal McLain
Neal McLain - 4/1/2010 7:03:02 PM EDT -
Another day, another broadcaster trying to make up for ad revenues they've lost because they can't sell their own air-time. Broadcasters need to pay more in license fees to make up for all the FCC oversight needed in their battles with cable and satellite over retransmission consent. Cable and satellite companies should have the right to move them to a cable tier when they demand retrans consent since they are more like a cable network.
Mark G - 4/1/2010 9:34:08 AM EDT -
Consumers of DirectTV cannot simply go to another carrier. They are locked into a contract and subject to penalties, first of all. And unlike prior to June 2009, you cannot just use your antenna anymore. You need at least a converter box and and a digital antenna!
This retrans problem will continue throughout the country and is not limited to DirectTV. It will mean pulling transmission by the other broadcast networks too for a ransom, unless the government steps in. After all, it is the federal government that started this mess with the mandated digital conversion which was not handled properly by the entities involved.
Diane M. Grassi - 3/31/2010 9:47:13 PM EDT -
So if DirecTV drops carriage of WHBF, DirectTV subscribers can receiver it for "free" over the air? Well, I would hope so. After all, DirecTV subs, along and Dish subs and CATV subs, have been subsidizing so-called "free" television for years.
Only in the upside-down world of broadcast television is one segment of the public (cable/sat subscribers) forced to subsidize another segment of the public in the name of "consumer protection."
Neal McLain
Neal McLain - 3/31/2010 7:07:32 PM EDT -
Let them go dark. The consumers can use an antenna or go without. It's not like there aren't hundreds of other channels on cable
Eric Post - 3/31/2010 5:56:07 PM EDT
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