General Discussion

LiberalArkie

(15,715 posts) Mon Oct 12, 2015, 07:08 PM Oct 2015

TV broadcasters try to stop Charter/Time Warner Cable merger

TV broadcasters today asked the Federal Communications Commission to halt its review of Charter's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable, saying the merged company would put local broadcasters at a disadvantage in multiple types of business negotiations.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) filed a petition saying the FCC should not approve the merger unless it also changes broadcast ownership rules that limit the number of radio and TV stations a single entity can own. Because the broadcast ownership rules limit mergers, NAB argues that broadcasters have far less negotiating power than big cable companies, which will only get bigger if the FCC allows the latest cable merger to proceed.

The NAB said the greater imbalance would harm broadcasters in retransmission consent negotiations, in which cable operators pay broadcast stations for the right to air their channels.

"Broadcast TV stations unable to combine under the FCC’s local TV ownership rule are at a notable disadvantage in negotiating retransmission consent agreements with such locally and nationally consolidated MVPDs [multichannel video programming distributors]," the NAB petition states

SNIP

http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/10/tv-broadcasters-try-to-stop-chartertime-warner-cable-merger/

3 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

TV broadcasters try to stop Charter/Time Warner Cable merger (Original Post) LiberalArkie Oct 2015 OP

Kickin' Faux pas Oct 2015 #1

Thanks for the info. lpbk2713 Oct 2015 #2

While I don't support the merger... mwooldri Oct 2015 #3

Faux pas

(14,675 posts)

1. Kickin'

Reply to LiberalArkie (Original post)

Mon Oct 12, 2015, 07:23 PM

Oct 2015

lpbk2713

(42,757 posts)

2. Thanks for the info.

Reply to LiberalArkie (Original post)

Mon Oct 12, 2015, 07:33 PM

Oct 2015

I've been wondering what the status was. I have BrightHouse for TV and Internet
and I expect the service to go downhill if and when Charter takes over. I have read
their reviews and they are mostly bad.

mwooldri

(10,303 posts)

3. While I don't support the merger...

Reply to LiberalArkie (Original post)

Mon Oct 12, 2015, 07:39 PM

Oct 2015

I'm sure that it's possible for terrestrial tv broadcasters to work out better deals with cable companies in general. They could "unionize" their deal making... after all a cable company would be in a bit of a pickle if all the broadcasters in a state denied the cableco the right to carry their signal.

NAB have a different motive.... allow fewer companies to own more broadcast stations.

Reply to this discussion