Posted by RadioActive on October 22, 2009, 3:30 pm, in reply to "Re: CTV News: Why The News Media Is Greeted By Cynicism "
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Both sides would be well served to take a look at what happened in the U.S. when the FCC allowed networks to demand payment for carriage.
At one point, CBS and the Dish Network went head to head over the issue, with the Eye Guys and Gals at Black Rock demanding a huge increase for the privilege of providing CBS signals.
Dish head honcho Charlie Ergen refused, and they reached an impasse. After weeks of this back and forth, CBS finally pulled ALL their signals from Dish's multi-million subscriber base, not so coincidentally around the time of the February sweeps and the Super Bowl.
The result: Dish lost huge subs to DirectTV and cable, saying they refused to accept blackmail and be forced to raise rates.
Consumers - unaware and really unconcerned about this corporate battle - did whatever they could to see the big game.
But for weeks, CBS also lost the eyeballs of millions of viewers as they stubbornly refused to lower their demands.
The situation was finally resolved, and CBS was restored to Dish.
But in the end, all sides lost as the finger pointing between the corporate monoliths continued. And yes, consumers who subscribed to Dish wound up paying more and most didn't really understand the reasons why. So everyone came out a loser.
In the last few years, this bizarre negotiation process has been more easily resolved amongst all the webs. The solution? Generally, it's an agreement to distribute the broadcasters' cable arms on the system in question, (Dish, Direct, cable et al) instead of an actual money payout, distribution being the key to launching a new network.
That probably couldn't happen here - the CRTC mandates that the locals have to get priority and would likely insist that the CTV and Globals be given mandatory cable placement, and could not be removed regardless of the area of dispute.
Still, all these greedy Canadian companies on both sides should take a lesson from what happened down south. You risk pissing off the public by fighting these corporate wars. And in the end, no one really wins.
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