• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

The Programming Disputes Thread


Gray owns CBS in Hartford, Burlington (VT), Presque Isle (ME) and Bangor (ME). I think they also operate the Western Mass news group in Springfield, MA.
 

Gray Media is in a dispute with Dish Network.
Dish Network? In a dispute with a station owner? Surely you can't be serious! :LOL:

Really, after all of Dish's disputes over the years, I can't for the life of me figure out how they stay in business. I wouldn't sign with them if they were free.
 
Dish Network? In a dispute with a station owner? Surely you can't be serious! :LOL:

Really, after all of Dish's disputes over the years, I can't for the life of me figure out how they stay in business. I wouldn't sign with them if they were free.
It takes two to tango as well as have a dispute. There is no good or bad here, but two parties attempting to maximize revenue. The consumer pays regardless the outcome.
 
Do we have any more news on how the blackout of Gray stations on Dish Network is going?

A lot of people aren't going to want to subscribe to a service that doesn't provide one or more of their local stations, and not everyone is willing or able to flip back and forth between Dish and an antenna.
 
A lot of people aren't going to want to subscribe to a service that doesn't provide one or more of their local stations, and not everyone is willing or able to flip back and forth between Dish and an antenna.
Yet many of those same people will complain bitterly when their video provider raises rates due to increased retransmission fees.

It would be great if subscribers could find out how much each channel costs per subscriber, but that is never going to happen. “Business secrets”. “Proprietary information”.

Once again, capitalists versus capitalists. Broadcast stations are seeking to maximize profit through increased retransmission fees, and video providers are trying to hold expanses down in order to maximize their own profit.
 
True and also I can more on flip between dish/cable TV and wifi systems for the TV apps for households with newer TV's rather than antennas as more recent methods to go around the dispute.

The difference here is that Cable TV is not as dominant as it was in the past when it came to carrying content.
 

Here is more on the Gray/Dish dispute.
Nitpick here, the article refers to "high-definition channels", but if they had the type of SmartBox that down-converts to analog, the channels wouldn't be high-definition anymore. I stayed in a small budget hotel last year that had this kind of setup, and my son (19), who shows some signs of being a TV geek like dear old dad, asked me "why are all of their channels analog?".
 
The dispute between Scripps and Comcast continues into its third week.
At some point, likely their next quarterly financials, Scripps will report impaired earnings from a lack of the Comcast retransmission fees. I predict this will force them, already on the edge financially and at risk for a takeover, to blink. The only thing saving current Scripps management at this point is that their assets are regulated and really only of interest to another station owner so ownership limits apply. Shareholders must be furious with Scripps management for the awful earnings and stock price.

I could be off though. Wall Street must think that Scripps might be able to squeeze more out of Comcast with the stock up about 25% in April. I do wonder once the earnings impact becomes clear if that will change.
 


Back
Top Bottom