Do you recall news stories from around the country where certain local over-the-air broadcasters suddenly disappear from cable systems for days, weeks or even months?
That happens when the local broadcaster chooses to negotiate for compensation in return for giving the cable operator the right to carry their signal and they can't reach an agreement.
Whether or not this system if fair to consumers is the subject of another post on another day.
Every three years, it's like a triple witching hour, when a disproportionately large number of these agreements come up for renewal. This happens simply because it's the anniversary date of the law that brought about Retransmission Consent rights for broadcasters and most deals are for three years.
January, 2009 is one of those dates.
That means that right at the time the US converts its broadcasting system from analog to digital, there's a fair chance that some broadcasters will pull their channels off of local cable systems because they cannot reach an agreement for compensation. Five cable companies, including Insight, asked the FCC to impose a short moratorium on pulling their signals from cable or satellite distributors for about six weeks before and six weeks after the digital transition date.
I have no dispute that the biggest hammer broadcasters have in negotiating carriage on a cable system is their right to pull their signal. Although I think it's a bad law for consumers (more on that in the later post), it's simply unconscionable that broadcasters might hold consumers hostage even more than usual by using the confusion of the digital transition period as additional leverage.
The cable industry asked the broadcasters to agree to a three month moratorium on pulling signals, from January 1 through March 31.
What did they say? No dice.
Although broadcasters said no, they have been under political pressure to agree to a moratorium for the good of the country. Because of that pressure, they agreed only to a voluntary (i.e. non-binding) period of two weeks before and two weeks after the February 17 transition date.
Here's what their board said.
...NAB's Television Board of Directors and their member companies hereby commit, on a voluntary basis, to continue to make available to all their distribution partners those broadcast signals being provided as of February 4, 2009; for a period of time beginning on February 4, 2009 through March 4, 2009 – a full two weeks prior to and after the DTV transition date of February 17, 2009. In addition, the TV board is making every effort to secure the same voluntary commitment from the television broadcast industry, including NAB's television members, the networks and the network affiliate stations.Thanks broadcasters but I don't find that short period of mutual cooperation very comforting.
Could there be an underlying reason for their lack of concern for the American consumer?
First, we must point out that the lion's share of the agreements up for renewal this year will expire on January 1, 2009. That means that if an agreement is not reached by then, station owners can demand that cable or satellite operators stop transmitting their signals.
So, what happens to all those stations that will already have been pulled by broadcasters before February 4? It means that this voluntary agreement is basically useless unless broadcasters agree to delay their ability to pull signals starting on January 1. We have suggested that we agree to a moratorium until March 31, about 6 weeks after the digital transition. That would give consumers time to confirm that they are technically prepared for the changeover without the confusion of the loss of any local channels.
I guess I can only arrive at one solution. The Super Bowl is on February 1 and March Madness begins in mid-March. Could it be that their short-term business opportunity is more important than the success of the nation's digital transition?
Seems so to me.
Power's back on; cable's out [WHAS]
WHAS-TV in Louisville did a story last night about our efforts to restore service in the Louisville area in the wake of the effects of Hurricane Ike. This story makes mention of a point I mentioned in an earlier post - that some service problems wouldn't become evident until power was restored. As of yesterday afternoon, 97 percent of Insight customers have service. We continue to work 24/7 to restore service to the other 3 percent.
Ike Aftermath [The Bauminator]
Here's another story about service restorations in the wake of Ike. Cable Digital News' Bauminator details Comcast's and Insight's restoration efforts.
Cable Phone Service Is Tops In JD Power Rankings [CableTechTalk]
For two years running, cable companies have swept the JD Power and Associates awards for best telephone service. JD Power and Associates surveyed 13,600 telephone customers nationwide to determine the award winners. From the JD Power and Associates release:The study measures customer satisfaction with both local and long distance telephone service in four regions across the United States. Five factors are examined in determining overall satisfaction. In order of importance, they are: customer service, performance and reliability, cost of service, billing, and offerings and promotions.
Satisfaction among “triple-play customers”—those subscribing to telephone, cable and Internet service—is 23 index points higher than among those customers subscribing to just phone service.
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