A local telecommunications company that began offering customers a telephone/video package this year is expanding its reach – just as the surging satellite television market hits a national milestone.
CTSI, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises, in partnership with DISH Network TV, has been marketing a telephone/satellite television promotion to its 12,000 residential customers in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties since last month. About 91 percent of the CTSI phone lines are registered to business customers.
Commonwealth Telephone Co., the local exchange carrier in the Dallas and Clarks Summit areas, launched its satellite TV offering in May. The package is available to its 170,000 customers in a 5,000-square-mile area of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Both CTSI and Commonwealth are subsidiaries of Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises, Inc.
Through the alliance with DISH, CTSI and Commonwealth customers may “bundle” their telephone, Internet and video services, giving consumers the convenience of one bill and one customer service contact, said company spokesman David Weselcouch.
Teaming up with telephone and Internet providers is one tool that satellite companies, like DISH and DIRECT TV, are using to chip away at the cable television industry.
Satellite TV broke the 20 percent mark and cable’s penetration hit a 13-year low, according to the most recent Television Bureau of Advertising analysis of Nielsen Media Research data for November.
The statistics indicate that 20.8 percent of American households are receiving subscription TV programming through an alternate delivery system, like satellite dishes. That’s up from 19.2 percent in November 2004.
In the same one-year period, cable penetration fell from 66.4 to 64.8 percent nationally – its lowest since February 1992.
Local patterns are following the national trend: Statistics show satellite TV’s share of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton market is at an all-time high of 17.2 percent – up from 16 percent a year ago and 8.5 percent five years ago.
Adding fuel to the debate between cable and satellite television is the possibility that Service Electric Co. may not carry two local stations beginning Jan. 1.
Nexstar Broadcasting, which owns and operates WBRE and WYOU, and Service Electric are still negotiating terms of an agreement for the retransmission of the NBC and CBS affiliates’ broadcast signal.
Nexstar, which is based in Texas, wants Service Electric to pay a fee for its signals.
Service Electric has more than 20,000 cable customers in the Wilkes-Barre area.
Larry Shewack, general manager of Service Electric’s Wilkes-Barre office, said he is confident that an accord will be reached before the end of the year. He would not divulge any monetary figures that are being discussed and declined to reveal the terms of agreements with other stations such as WNEP.
“We’re going to make every effort to resolve this,” Shewack said.
Nexstar spokesman Duane Lammers said the broadcaster has reached several deals with cable companies throughout the country in the last few weeks and acknowledged that talks are continuing with Service Electric and Adams Cable Service, which provides cable to areas north of Scranton.
“They (Service Electric) have taken our signal for 40 years and sold it to their customers and kept all the money,” Lammers said.
Local cable companies can pay retransmission fees while remaining competitive with satellite TV, he said.
“In the last three years, satellites have become extremely prevalent, both DISH and DIRECT,” Lammers said. “Both pay Nexstar per subscriber fees. A lot of people have already switched. Cable pays every other programming provider.”
The dispute stems from a 1992 federal law that gives broadcasters the option to require cable carriers to include their broadcast or to negotiate an agreement for retransmission rights. This is the first time that Service Electric is being asked to pay retransmission fees.
The Service Electric/Nexstar battle is being waged publicly. The cable company has purchased ads in local newspapers asking its subscribers to contact WBRE and WYOU television stations to express their concern about the situation.
WBRE General Manager John Dittmeier posted an open letter on the station’s Web site urging Adams and Service Electric customers to call the Dish Network or DirecTV.
“We are asking Adams Cable and Service Electric Co. to pay us less than a penny a day out of the extremely expensive cable bill that you pay every month…” Dittmeier said in the letter.
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/business/13484154.htm
CTSI, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises, in partnership with DISH Network TV, has been marketing a telephone/satellite television promotion to its 12,000 residential customers in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties since last month. About 91 percent of the CTSI phone lines are registered to business customers.
Commonwealth Telephone Co., the local exchange carrier in the Dallas and Clarks Summit areas, launched its satellite TV offering in May. The package is available to its 170,000 customers in a 5,000-square-mile area of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Both CTSI and Commonwealth are subsidiaries of Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises, Inc.
Through the alliance with DISH, CTSI and Commonwealth customers may “bundle” their telephone, Internet and video services, giving consumers the convenience of one bill and one customer service contact, said company spokesman David Weselcouch.
Teaming up with telephone and Internet providers is one tool that satellite companies, like DISH and DIRECT TV, are using to chip away at the cable television industry.
Satellite TV broke the 20 percent mark and cable’s penetration hit a 13-year low, according to the most recent Television Bureau of Advertising analysis of Nielsen Media Research data for November.
The statistics indicate that 20.8 percent of American households are receiving subscription TV programming through an alternate delivery system, like satellite dishes. That’s up from 19.2 percent in November 2004.
In the same one-year period, cable penetration fell from 66.4 to 64.8 percent nationally – its lowest since February 1992.
Local patterns are following the national trend: Statistics show satellite TV’s share of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton market is at an all-time high of 17.2 percent – up from 16 percent a year ago and 8.5 percent five years ago.
Adding fuel to the debate between cable and satellite television is the possibility that Service Electric Co. may not carry two local stations beginning Jan. 1.
Nexstar Broadcasting, which owns and operates WBRE and WYOU, and Service Electric are still negotiating terms of an agreement for the retransmission of the NBC and CBS affiliates’ broadcast signal.
Nexstar, which is based in Texas, wants Service Electric to pay a fee for its signals.
Service Electric has more than 20,000 cable customers in the Wilkes-Barre area.
Larry Shewack, general manager of Service Electric’s Wilkes-Barre office, said he is confident that an accord will be reached before the end of the year. He would not divulge any monetary figures that are being discussed and declined to reveal the terms of agreements with other stations such as WNEP.
“We’re going to make every effort to resolve this,” Shewack said.
Nexstar spokesman Duane Lammers said the broadcaster has reached several deals with cable companies throughout the country in the last few weeks and acknowledged that talks are continuing with Service Electric and Adams Cable Service, which provides cable to areas north of Scranton.
“They (Service Electric) have taken our signal for 40 years and sold it to their customers and kept all the money,” Lammers said.
Local cable companies can pay retransmission fees while remaining competitive with satellite TV, he said.
“In the last three years, satellites have become extremely prevalent, both DISH and DIRECT,” Lammers said. “Both pay Nexstar per subscriber fees. A lot of people have already switched. Cable pays every other programming provider.”
The dispute stems from a 1992 federal law that gives broadcasters the option to require cable carriers to include their broadcast or to negotiate an agreement for retransmission rights. This is the first time that Service Electric is being asked to pay retransmission fees.
The Service Electric/Nexstar battle is being waged publicly. The cable company has purchased ads in local newspapers asking its subscribers to contact WBRE and WYOU television stations to express their concern about the situation.
WBRE General Manager John Dittmeier posted an open letter on the station’s Web site urging Adams and Service Electric customers to call the Dish Network or DirecTV.
“We are asking Adams Cable and Service Electric Co. to pay us less than a penny a day out of the extremely expensive cable bill that you pay every month…” Dittmeier said in the letter.
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/business/13484154.htm
