Phoenix Meredith stations dispute?

[DISH Support]

It's time for Meredith to temper their greed and do a deal.

We are continuing to work with Meredith Corporation to bring back your missing channels which they removed. Meredith continues to demand DISH pays higher fees to carry their channels than any other broadcaster in the nation. DISH offered to match the rates paid by other pay-TV providers; Meredith refused this offer.

 

[Jon J]

Meredith should be paying DISH to carry its Nashville NBC station. Picture me holding my nose.

 

[DJ Lon]

Yeah 5 weeks now; I've called the Meredith number Dish provides but it's just a recording of them saying how Dish isn't taking negotiations seriously and that all the other providers they've done this to caved & hangs up.

 

[The Fat Man]

The more subs who have the ability to receive locals via OTA and drops local programming on Dish, the more leverage Dish has. You save $12.00 a month, and the locals get nothing. If it wasn't for my wife loving PTAT, I would have dropped the locals and kept the savings.

 

[charlesrshell]

The more subs who have the ability to receive locals via OTA and drops local programming on Dish, the more leverage Dish has. You save $12.00 a month, and the locals get nothing. If it wasn't for my wife loving PTAT, I would have dropped the locals and kept the savings.

I am with your wife. I miss PTAT and I don't like dealing with OTA conflicts. Hopper 3 and PTAT has me spoiled.

 

[JSheridan]

I am with your wife. I miss PTAT and I don't like dealing with OTA conflicts. Hopper 3 and PTAT has me spoiled.

You better not be with his wife! I don't think The Fat Man or your wife would like that.

 

[charlesrshell]

You better not be with his wife! I don't think The Fat Man or your wife would like that.

LOL, I didn't do too good in English back in my school days. Could have worded that a little better.

 

[sam_gordon]

The more subs who have the ability to receive locals via OTA and drops local programming on Dish, the more leverage Dish has. You save $12.00 a month, and the locals get nothing. If it wasn't for my wife loving PTAT, I would have dropped the locals and kept the savings.

I don't think that necessarily gives Dish more leverage. Dish says "see, we don't have as many subscribers for locals". The broadcaster says "Look at the ratings... more people watch us than watch ESPN."

Let's say all but one subscriber for a market goes OTA. Dish is still going to have their fixed costs. I don't think that one sub's $12 a month is really going to make a difference. Losing local subscribers hurts Dish more than the broadcasters I would think.

 

[The Fat Man]

I don't think that necessarily gives Dish more leverage. Dish says "see, we don't have as many subscribers for locals". The broadcaster says "Look at the ratings... more people watch us than watch ESPN."

Let's say all but one subscriber for a market goes OTA. Dish is still going to have their fixed costs. I don't think that one sub's $12 a month is really going to make a difference. Losing local subscribers hurts Dish more than the broadcasters I would think.

Not necessarily. If they are all subbing to locals on Dish now and the numbers are what they are, having a percentage switch to OTA does absolutely nothing to changing viewing habits.

 

[sam_gordon]

Not necessarily. If they are all subbing to locals on Dish now and the numbers are what they are, having a percentage switch to OTA does absolutely nothing to changing viewing habits.

Right. So someone watching CBS on Dish drops locals and watches CBS OTA. The station still gets the ratings. Having that person drop locals doesn't really hurt Dish or the local. You claimed it gives Dish more leverage. The more people that drop for OTA, the more DISH is hurt. That's less money they're bringing in to offset their fixed costs to deliver that local.

 

[dare2be]

Right. So someone watching CBS on Dish drops locals and watches CBS OTA. The station still gets the ratings. Having that person drop locals doesn't really hurt Dish or the local. You claimed it gives Dish more leverage. The more people that drop for OTA, the more DISH is hurt. That's less money they're bringing in to offset their fixed costs to deliver that local.

But it's also less money that Dish is paying to the channel in retrans fees. The amount the local channels lose from the loss of each subscriber is much more than the amount of profit Dish loses from them. It wouldn't hurt against Dish's fixed costs until something like 80% or more of the subscribers were to go OTA only in a market.

 

[sam_gordon]

But it's also less money that Dish is paying to the channel in retrans fees. The amount the local channels lose from the loss of each subscriber is much more than the amount of profit Dish loses from them. It wouldn't hurt against Dish's fixed costs until something like 80% or more of the subscribers were to go OTA only in a market.

I'm not convinced about the bolded. I'm assuming a local is now getting $1.25-$1.50/subscriber/month. I truly don't know. You think having someone drop locals really hurts the broadcaster? Don't get me wrong. I think it's great for Dish to allow you to drop the locals (I did). I'm just not convinced that people dropping the locals gives Dish more leverage in negotiations.

 

[ChadT41]

I'm not convinced about the bolded. I'm assuming a local is now getting $1.25-$1.50/subscriber/month. I truly don't know. You think having someone drop locals really hurts the broadcaster? Don't get me wrong. I think it's great for Dish to allow you to drop the locals (I did). I'm just not convinced that people dropping the locals gives Dish more leverage in negotiations.

“Fair price or your only revenue will be from advertisers. By the way, our contract included autohop delay... there is no contract, which means ads get hopped sooner”. That’s pretty good leverage. The station loses both metrics, considering it devalues the ad money.

 

[NYDutch]

I'm not convinced about the bolded. I'm assuming a local is now getting $1.25-$1.50/subscriber/month. I truly don't know. You think having someone drop locals really hurts the broadcaster? Don't get me wrong. I think it's great for Dish to allow you to drop the locals (I did). I'm just not convinced that people dropping the locals gives Dish more leverage in negotiations.

The longer the blackout lasts, the more subscribers drop the locals and Dish pays the broadcaster less while losing little or no money itself.

 

[mwdxer1]

I tell people all of the time to get an antenna. The Portland OR Meredith stations (KPTV/KPDX) are available for free OTA. They have translators all over Oregon.

 

[dare2be]

“Fair price or your only revenue will be from advertisers. By the way, our contract included autohop delay... there is no contract, which means ads get hopped sooner”. That’s pretty good leverage. The station loses both metrics, considering it devalues the ad money.

Sounds good on the surface, but are there any AutoHop delays in contracts other than O&O stations? If not, then for the Meredith dispute, that wouldn't apply.

 

[ChadT41]

Sounds good on the surface, but are there any AutoHop delays in contracts other than O&O stations? If not, then for the Meredith dispute, that wouldn't apply.

Yes. All CBS and all Fox have delays and each independent owner negotiated their own delay for NBC and ABC outside the O&O rules. Contract only applies if one is in place.

 

[sam_gordon]

“Fair price or your only revenue will be from advertisers. By the way, our contract included autohop delay... there is no contract, which means ads get hopped sooner”. That’s pretty good leverage. The station loses both metrics, considering it devalues the ad money.

Does autohop work OTA? Regardless, even if it didn't, they're not measuring eyes on a given commercial. They're measuring eyes in 15 minute increments at best. So for those that have Nielsen sensors in their home (vs filling out the book), If you're watching a show at 6:01, it's assumed you're watching from 6:00-6:15. I think those times are right.

And going back to the argument this always comes back to, who gets to consider what's "fair"? Presumably ALL MVPDs are ok with paying locals, otherwise retrans would never happen. Presumably MVPDs are fine paying whatever the past rate is. Again, Dish (any MVPD) has the power to say "nope, that's too much money, we're not carrying you."

At the same time, I do think broadcasters can be asking for too much. I don't know that I could even tell you how much "too much" is. At least with Dish, customers have the option of not paying for locals.

 

[charlesrshell]

Does autohop work OTA? Regardless, even if it didn't, they're not measuring eyes on a given commercial. They're measuring eyes in 15 minute increments at best. So for those that have Nielsen sensors in their home (vs filling out the book), If you're watching a show at 6:01, it's assumed you're watching from 6:00-6:15. I think those times are right.

And going back to the argument this always comes back to, who gets to consider what's "fair"? Presumably ALL MVPDs are ok with paying locals, otherwise retrans would never happen. Presumably MVPDs are fine paying whatever the past rate is. Again, Dish (any MVPD) has the power to say "nope, that's too much money, we're not carrying you."

At the same time, I do think broadcasters can be asking for too much. I don't know that I could even tell you how much "too much" is. At least with Dish, customers have the option of not paying for locals.

Yes AutoHop works with the OTA PTAT channels. And if you don't subscribe to the Sat locals, AutoHop works the next day.

 

[ChadT41]

Does autohop work OTA? Regardless, even if it didn't, they're not measuring eyes on a given commercial. They're measuring eyes in 15 minute increments at best. So for those that have Nielsen sensors in their home (vs filling out the book), If you're watching a show at 6:01, it's assumed you're watching from 6:00-6:15. I think those times are right.

And going back to the argument this always comes back to, who gets to consider what's "fair"? Presumably ALL MVPDs are ok with paying locals, otherwise retrans would never happen. Presumably MVPDs are fine paying whatever the past rate is. Again, Dish (any MVPD) has the power to say "nope, that's too much money, we're not carrying you."

At the same time, I do think broadcasters can be asking for too much. I don't know that I could even tell you how much "too much" is. At least with Dish, customers have the option of not paying for locals.

That may have been the previous Nielsen measurement, however if you remember, Nielsen signed an agreement with Dish for their viewing information. Every receiver connected to the phone or internet atleast once per week uploads that info to Dish and it is shared with Nielsen for a more specific data point. This will give precise viewing habits, times, dates, number of tvs in house, etc. in addition, the networks do control their commercials wait time(C3, C7, C14, C30, C45 and C60). So with that data, as mentioned, it completely devalued ad space.