Last year consumers made it clear that the endless bickering between cable providers and broadcasters was driving many of them to cut the cord. The feuds over programming contracts, which have risen to an all time high, usually involve both sides engaging in ugly public feuds, blacked out content, and annoying commercial and on-screen ticker attempts to get consumers annoyed at the other side.
But the end result is always the same for consumers: after blackouts (with no refunds) and months of annoyances, the two sides strike confidential deals, and consumers then wind up paying an arm and a leg in higher cable rates. Rinse, wash, repeat.
So far, 2017 isn't going much better than 2016 did. At the moment:
• NBC is threatening to pull its content offline if it can't strike a new deal with Charter Spectrum.
• KXLY Channel 4 ABC affiliate Morgan Murphy Media this week blacked out its station from Suddenlink customers in Idaho, after demanding a 75% rate hike.
• Bonneville International has blacked out Dish customer access to a local NBC affiliate in large parts of Idaho.
• Cable ONE customers have lost access to Northwest Broadcasting channels across a huge swath of its terrories after disputes.
• Frontier customers are losing access to Sinclair Broadcast Stations, which is rumored to be looking for a 200% rate increase.
• DirecTV users temporarily lost access to 33 Hearst Stations during yet another feud.
The American Television Alliance, a coalition of mostly cable providers, says 2017 is already setting records for these kinds of blackouts, placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of greedy broadcasters.
"Broadcasters ambushed innocent consumers on New Year’s Day with a tidal wave of television blackouts," said the group. "Broadcast tycoons have brazenly and deliberately hijacked pay TV viewers once again, holding college football bowl games, the last weekend of the NFL’s regular season and network premiers for ransom in a naked ploy to extract more money from consumers."
Except cable providers aren't faultless. They too seek to raise rates wherever and whenever possible, from the fees charged to rent cable hardware, to repair, installation, and even costs affixed to paying your bill. They're also relentlessly pursuing cable broadband rate hikes, usage caps and overage fees to ensure their margins remain fat overall as television revenues tighten.
All told it's part of an immense cross-industry tone deafness when it comes to the interests of their own customers, who have made it repeatedly clear (through
record 2016 cord cutting) they're looking for lower prices and more flexible programming options. As cord cutting continues to accelerate, nobody in this industry should bee foolish enough to wonder why.