Viacom, Time Warner Cable Kiss, Make Up > This needs to stop

This needs to stop

Nothing forces pay TV companies to pay the content owners for their content as has been witnessed by a pay TV companies resisting/negotiating with the owners over the last several years. Also, the pay TV companies also receive income from advertising so you can't point only at the content producers.

Strange that OTA stations stay in business with the local ad money but national networks who change more for ads because they get nation wide coverage via cable, satellite, etc can't seem to make it without some bucks from the people providing the large audience.
Strange that the "commercial free" pay tv people now seem to have to charge us an arm and leg just to watch tv- with 20 min per hour of commercials, is there some "payola" going on here?

I haven't looked at the financials of the content producers or distributors, but I suspect that they're making decent money. The national networks that broadcast OTA are leveraged with other business models and are connected to the content producers. I suspect that the quantity/quality of the content would decrease should they not receive ad revenue and carry revenue from the pay TV providers. High quality content production is not cheap.

reply to rayeger
A law saying "only this business model is allowed" is sort of arbitrary. Your goal is to get the shows you want while paying the minimum for your cable TV, while watching the least amount of commercials. There are more fair and efficient ways to accomplish that.

If you're going to pass a law, have it treat forced bundling as unfair trade. That way, your cable company can drop the channels that people don't want, or pay a lower price for them. Then "a la carte" would be possible, and Viacom couldn't pass the risk from their crappy shows onto the broadcasters.

Ultimately, it will make sense for every show to be sold on demand per episode, the ultimate "a la carte". Perhaps a "with commercials" version could be sold for a lower price.

reply to openbox9
Many OTA broadcasters (especially those affiliated with a major TV network) receive compensation from cable companies in exchange for retransmission consent. There are many well documented cases of this.

Yes, local broadcasters have a choice between receiving compensation from TV providers or must carry arrangements minus the compensation. I feel that the pay TV providers should treat local broadcasters no different in their exorbitant greed than they do the national conglomerates (which often own a lot of the local broadcasters btw). I went through a couple of retransmission disputes with my previous provider. Does nothing but drive me towards an OTA antenna and discontinuing my pay TV service.