Time Warner has failed to come to an agreement in their negotiations with the Austin NBC division and as a consequence, they are no longer showing their programing. NBC apparently wanted about 1 cent a day for rights to broadcast their station and Time Warner refused saying they shouldn’t have to pay for something that is free.
But how can you get it for free? By use of something Time Warner calls an ‘antennae’ — but what is an antennae? No one really knows but anthropologists believe it was some sort of early communication device before there were computers — now they are almost impossible to find.
Personally, I will just watch them on Hulu, although there is something to be said for seeing it right away and on my tv. There is a lot of money to be made making televisions internet capable directly over WiFi and I’m sure many companies like Hulu, Netflix, Apple and others are working on that. If I were Sony, LG or Samsung, I would be scrambling to beat these box manufacturers to the punch by making the televisions themselves WiFii ready on an input channel.
I was also slightly surprised to learn that the economics of the station/time warner relationship worked that way for Austin’s NBC. I would think that without Time Warner, NBC’s advertisers would begin to pull out and NBC would start to lose money — much more than Time Warner’s customers would leave Time Warner.
If that is true then it seems like NBC should be PAYING Time Warner, not the other way around.
Full Disclosure: I am one of the 150 local people that KXAN employs here in Austin and while I am not involved in the negotiations, I have taken a very personal interest in making sure that Austinites know the facts.
As you can imagine, there is a lot of misinformation out there. Here’s what people should know and understand:
1)These are complex negotiations that all broadcasters and cable companies go through. Most deals are negotiated behind the scenes and you don’t even hear about them. KXAN is not the only TV station asking for fair market value, as many people believe. In fact, all broadcasters are asking and nearly all cable companies, large and small, understand that they have to share subscriber fees with local TV stations, just as they do with cable networks. If you don’t believe me check out KSAT-TV in San Antonio; they are going through the same thing with Time Warner. Time Warner is the only business that I can think of that charges its customers for a product or service they do not pay to receive. Time Warner wants you to believe we are greedy but isn’t Time Warner the one who is greedy?
2) Time Warner’s main argument is that we should be free. The local broadcast signal is FREE to folks with an antenna but there is no way it should be free to the 2nd largest cable company in the nation that makes a lot of money re-selling the programming of local broadcasters! My company invests heavily in our news, our programming and in our local community. Again – other cable companies recognize that and partner with us. When we partner, everyone wins. My company has trying for months now to partner with Time Warner.
3) I understand you’re upset. I’m upset, too. I am also a Time Warner customer and I want to watch my favorite shows when I get home from work! I love 30 Rock! At least cable is no longer the only game in town and we now have choices.
4) I think Time Warner ought to be able to negotiate successfully with my company just like everybody else. What Time Warner charges its customers is completely within their control and there is no reason that subscribers’ rates should increase. That’s just a scare tactic they are using. I don’t know about you but my rates go up anyway and Time Warner has no one to blame but themselves.
Finally, I want you to know that we think we provide a valuable product and we are proud of what we do every single day at KXAN Austin News.
Thank you for all the tremendous support and I look forward to a FAIR resolution
In response to Charlie’s comment. Time Warner provides something that KXAN does not provide, a nice clean signal of KXAN. If I were using antennae, the image on my screen would be worth about what I was paying for it…nothing. I understand that LIN wants to get paid for their signal and from what I gather, they are just not happy with what they are being offered. As far as I am concerned, I can live without NBC. KXAN could be gone from Austin and I would not shed a tear. I simply watch Heroes in Hi-Def on MOJO on Wednesday nights.