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The Programming Disputes Thread

Just spoke with Direct TV and their still in contract negotiations with Newsmax. I told the customer representative person, I hope they never come back. Wasn't a big fan to begin with.​

Dan <><
 


Here we go again Rick Scott a US Senator is calling for an investigation of the Newsmax/Directv dispute.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott is speaking out against “censorship” of conservative voices, urging the Senate to “get to the bottom of this” after DirecTV announced they would drop Newsmax.

During an interview on Newsmax, Scott was asked about DirecTV removing the channel from its lineup, and he said he wanted Senate “hearings” to explore how that happened.

“Absolutely. We’ve got to get to the bottom of this. This is censorship by companies like AT&T of conservative voices … this has got to stop,” Scott said. “So we need to hold hearings here. We need to get to the bottom of this. I’m going to do everything I can.”

DirecTV announced the decision to drop Newsmax after the conservative outlet demanded carriage fees, which other carriers like Verizon and Dish Network have agreed to.


Also in an unrelated dispute CBS Affiliates not owned and managed by Paramount is in a dispute with FuboTV


Last week, the CBS Affiliate Board told its members the deal CBS owner Paramount Global struck with Fubo was unacceptable.


Nearly all of the major station groups — Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Gray Television, Tegna, E.W. Scripps and Cox Media Group — all took the board's recommendation, turned down the CBS offer and pulled their stations from Fubo. (CBS is providing Fubo with a national feed with programming from the CBS News Streaming Network to fill in for local content.)

The affiliate board noted that CBS parent Paramount Global has a conflict, negotiating retransmission-consent deals for CBS-owned stations and affiliates and also license fee for its cable networks as well. (MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, Comedy Central were part of Viacom before CBS merged with Viacom to form what is now Paramount Global.)

“While we’re not privy to this deal’s details, it seems logical to wonder if Paramount was willing to take lower CBS station retrans step-ups, but achieved improved terms on other networks,“ Cahall said. “This could drive a wedge between CBS and its affiliates, and it will be interesting to see whether this implicates upcoming CBS reverse comp deals.”
 

More Republicans protest the Newsmax/DirecTV dispute.
Actually, given the count of Republican voters vs. the ratings data for Newsmax, we can say that, overwhelmingly, most Republicans don't even watch newsmax.
 
Actually, given the count of Republican voters vs. the ratings data for Newsmax, we can say that, overwhelmingly, most Republicans don't even watch newsmax.
Good point and also the ones like Fox News gets more Republican viewers among the news/talk channels compared to Newsmax. Also in the case of Fox they have other divisions like Fox Entertainment, Tubi, Fox Sports and Fox Television Stations. When Fox had a contract dispute they cited viewers missing out on NFL games and the World Cup when that happened. In Fox Case they have other demos that watch events on their networks and apps. However in Newsmax case they are too dependent on events that tend to be a boom for them in even numbered years like elections.

 
However in Newsmax case they are too dependent on events that tend to be a boom for them in even numbered years like elections.
Plus the fact that Newsmax is certainly a minor league team in the news field. It's just not very good based on standards that don't have to do with political affiliations.
 

Newsmax makes claims of TV channels they accuse of being "Liberal" while in a contract dispute with DirecTV. First of all the issue here is that Newsmax's parent company does not diversify the audience. Also these people are too dependent on Donald Trump or Desantis or Lindell and it's backfiring given that most of us only heard of Newsmax as a streaming network.
 
NewsMax is cheap and low-budget the few times I watched it when it was added to Spectrum in the fall of 2019 then a week later couldn't see it since the message had no access to the channel and had to press ok to add it which I had no interest in NewsMax.
 

Directv Sues Nexstar over conspiring with Mission and White Knight over retrans fees. Note Mission and White Knight are license holders to some of the Nexstar stations in some places and Nexstar is viewed as the ones the provide the news content for Mission and White Knight Stations like WPIX-TV New York which is officially owned by Mission Broadcasting but Nexstar provides the news content for WPIX-TV.




DirecTV sued Nexstar Media Group, Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting in a New York federal court Tuesday, accusing the three broadcast station groups of “engaging in an illegal conspiracy” to manipulate the market for broadcast retransmission fees.


Since October, a total of 25 Mission and White Knight stations in 23 markets have been blacked out on DirecTV pay TV platforms. Both White Knight and Mission have agreements under which Nexstar manages ad sales, news production, equipment maintenance and other functions for stations.

DirecTV's suit accuses Nexstar, America’s largest broadcast station group, of making “sidecar” arrangements with smaller broadcasters to “skirt FCC station-ownership caps and other federal laws through collusive retransmission-consent negotiations.”

In all of the markets where Mission and White Knight have stations blacked out on DirecTV, Nexstar manages another major broadcast network affiliate. (DirecTV's press release(opens in new tab) has a large, unwieldy chart that shows what these stations and markets are.)
 
The Classic Hits radio station where I liver carries a 1 minute top of the hour newscast from the USA Radio Network along with a minute or 2 of commercials from USA Radio Network. And almost every commercial break within the news there's a commercial for NEWSMAX. These people running NEWSMAX never tell the truth. They got some politicians saying that is a violation of the constitution that DirecTV doesn't carry NEWSMAX. They claim its a violation of "Freedom of Speech." I certainly do not consider it a violation of Freedom of speech.

DirecTV is a business. And all the networks are products. (Including NEWSMAX). DirectTV like any other business can choose to carry or not carry (as the case may me) any product they want. - It's no different than say CVS, Target, most Walmarts, etc not carrying tobacco products.
 

Hulu gets a new carriage agreement with Sinclair owned ABC Affiliates like WJLA, KOMO, KATU, KATV, KRCR.
 


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