Brian Stelter has a piece today in the New York Times (10/20/10) explaining the latest in the fight between Cablevision and NewsCorp. NewsCorp wants the cable company to pay them more money—a lot more—for airing Fox‘s broadcast signal (and a few, smaller cable channels). The two sides couldn’t reach a deal, and as of Saturday, Cablevision customers in the New York area weren’t able to watch Fox.
NewsCorp upped the ante, as Stelter reports, by blocking Cablevision customers from accessing Fox shows on the popular streaming video site Hulu. While that maneuver didn’t last long, it did represent a pretty clear example of what a major media company can do to violate net neutrality.
These fights (as Megan Tady of Free Press noted in a piece in Extra! in March) are about giant media companies fighting amongst themselves over money, with the public mostly powerless to intervene.
But when I see Fox getting involved in these fights, I can’t help but imagine a battle over the carriage fees that cable companies pay for the Fox News Channel—costs that are passed on to you, the consumer, whether or not you watch Fox News. By some counts you pay three times more for Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity than you do for, say, MSNBC.
So what if a cable company decided that was too much? And what if Fox retaliated by pulling Fox News Channel from your cable system? Somehow I think we’d all manage to get through the day.
Or, even more drastically, what if customers could choose whether or not they wanted to pay for Fox News Channel in the first place, through an a la carte cable menu? Fox rakes in millions of dollars every year from viewers and non-viewers alike; it seems like a decent media system would give people the right to not contribute to Murdoch’s empire.
One reason you pay three times more for Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity than you do for, say, MSNBC is that Fox News Channel is becoming increasingly unprofitable. Though the Fox audience has grown, decent Americans, both viewers and non-viewers, have begun to boycott the sponsors of such outrageous broadcast media demagogues. The sponsors are aware of this, and they have been dropping these professional hate-mongers like hot potatoes.
Imagine if the bandwidth- Currently unused Fox channels, were offered to electioneering candidates without cash.
Does Fox have an obligation to Air the contents that advertisers pay to be seen? What about MLB who depend on their Franchise to be seen? Did they too not have a contract with Fox to get the viewer ship?
Unfortunately, Fox News Channel is still being broadcast in Cablevision. The entertainment channels, such as Fox 5 in NY, are not. I missed this week’s “House” and will probably miss “Glee”
There are commercials against DISH Network because they are dropping these Fox channels. But they failed to mention it was because FOX is asking for too much money… (go figure). I too, will miss House, but sooner or later they are shown on other stations not owned by FOX. So I will not miss FOX that much after all..!
@Roger Bloyce – Fox revenues have been increasing year over year by double digits…last year by 26%. How can you say they are becoming unprofitable. It’s simply not true.
I don’t know who the first 3 or 4 commenters on this page are; but they are really miss-informed! FOX is GROWING and I for one would pay more to hear the GD TRUTH, rather than listen to the networks that only say what the government wants them to say! If all the news medias told the truth, we would be a much more inform people as to what this USURPING MORON is doing to destroy OUR country! Those who don’t want to hear what FOX has to say, and only listen to ABC or NBC or the others, only hear what the government wants you to hear, not the truth! Your heads are in the sand!!!
Frank I don.t know where you are getting your info but if you GOOGLE the ratings you will see that FOX has LOST viewers at a 25% rate. Paolo. I noticed you said “last year” in your comment. What about this year? Just because ALL THE OTHER REAL NEWS stations report BOTH sides of the issues it doesn’t mean they are government controlled. It means they are truly “fair and balanced”. I have a hard time watching fox fake news because of the constant bombardment of hate and bigotry throughout the day.
Frank you wouldn’t know the truth if it bit you on the arse but fear not you are not alone. Rather than making people stupid the internet reveals how misinformed and stupid we really are (including yours truly). It takes real work to sift through all the rhetoric on all sides of an issue. That is the problem with virtually all news sources. To be truly objective requires a lot research. In addition, most of us read what we want to read because it vindicates whatever preconcieved ideas we had already. As for government controlling the media NAMI has classes for people like you.
Well, you don’t need to miss “House” or “Glee” or any show like that–get a spy-blocker like Peer Guardian, a Bit Torrent Client (?) like uTorrent, and visit BT Junkie where you will find all those shows, with the commercials removed and ready for download, courtesy of your fellow citizens, working for free on these important matters. Then you can avoid the execrable Fox altogether. Voila!
P.S.: You know, Frank S., you really need to get out more. I don’t watch much TV, and I have nothing but contempt for the “news” organizations of ABC and CNN and NBC and the rest. (Fox is the propaganda arm of the GOP, and as such, is not news at all. You mean you really didn’t know that?) So, I guess you could say that my nose is merely grazing the sand, whilst those others may, indeed, figuatively speaking of course, have thier heads in the sand, but your brain-washed, Fox-watching head is literally up your ass. How’s the view?
Frank, I feel so bad for you. Your ignorance is immense, it has become a thick husk that is cocooning you and keeping you from reality. On the other hand it is inexcusable for anyone to be that misinformed and you need to slap yourself a few times and maybe you will wake up long enough to see how toxic Fox news is.
The only cable news I watch is MSNBC’s Schultz, Maddow, and Olbermann, and I watch them with an open mind, I don’t take their word for anything. It is peculiar that in my area, Dish Network charges more for MSNBC, they are in a separate bundle than Fox and CNN. I had to purchase the whole bundle just to get them. Its a crime that we can’t buy just the channels we want.
@ frank: the moment i saw the word USURPING, i quit….obama is the duly and honestly ELECTED president of the united states…. why do fauxnews fluffers hate democracy?
ps:
i lied…i did see the word MORON…project much?
Fox will not be stopped from telling the truth as they believe it to be. Nothing more can be asked from any concern left right or center.So far they are doing a great job getting the word out regarding the disaster that is the Obama regime.Bravo!!!!!
The problem is that Fox “News” has proven time and again it is just an appendage of the GOP. I too like the ala carte idea for cable but since we don’t have any real competition among companies none of them will offer it. My cable would be much cheaper and quite a bit smaller if I could cut most of that stuff I don’t want or need in the first place.
Nightgaunt
I agree with your ala carte idea.And with your noticing the lack of competition and the bad service that goes with it.Keep it in mind as the government takes over healthcare and puts all smaller concerns out of business.
Fox news most def is far more on the conservative side than all the other thousand news outlets that I say pandered left during the last election.Good to have some difference of opinion.If they went under who would tell the other side?
@ nightgaunt: David Frum: “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we’re discovering we work for Fox.”
ps
“Fox: the truth as they believe it to be”…..THAT should be their slogan….why even bother with truthiness? just make stuff up….