News Corp. Prez Cites News As Well As Sports For High Retrans Costs

[DToTheJ]

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/news-cor...ney-or-you-can-forget-your-sports-local-news/

In addition to sports rights (Cablevision subscribers missed out of NFL games and the first two games of this year's World Series during a dispute with Fox), News Corp.'s (Fox's owner) president and CEO states that "local news, which is very expensive to produce, could be eliminated entirely or become less local in nature, as advertising alone can no longer cover the hefty production costs. Broadcast channels would become much less desirable, and broadcasters and the people they employ and the viewers they serve, would be irreparably harmed."

So I guess Tribune is ahead of its time, eh?

 

[Sammi Brie]

Yet there's too much national news. A British model (national/world news, each station inserts a local segment) would flop, esp. at Fox.

 

[landtuna]

...News Corp.'s (Fox's owner) president and CEO states that "local news, which is very expensive to produce...

I'm going to pick a quarrel with News Corp on this one....and use one of his own O&O's as an example (KSAZ in Phoenix).

1. Why do stations insist on expensive helicopters to cover freeway accidents and warehouse fires?
2. Why is the news "team" five people when 1 or 2 would do?
3. Why are the reporters sent "on location" to report a story that could easily have been covered with a static backdrop of the subject (jail, courthouse, supermarket etc.)?
4. Why is the remote truck sent on a 250-mile round trip into the mountains to report that it's winter and snow is falling?
5. Why do we need 5 30-minute news programs each day in addition to the 30-minutes of national news, and....
6. Why does the local news parrot major stories just presented on the national news 15 minutes before?

These are just a few items that could be changed to reduce costs dramatically without any negative effect on the stories being covered.

In other words News Corp., your news coverage is costly because you waste time and money in your current presentation. As do the majority of other stations with news departments.

And while we're on the subject.....I'm told that the news programs are usually the largest money-makers for the station. If that is true then I can't buy your statement that they are "too costly". News is either making money for you or it is isn't and if not then trim the waste.