[Broadcast television stations already receive a huge public subsidy in the form of free spectrum. If our political system were less influenced by money & more by common sense no one would have to pay to receive or carry these signals. Of course, cable & satellite rebroadcasters would be required to put up broadcast signals in each DMA, and would be prohibited from charging customers for them, except for a modest infrastructure fee if a customer subscribed to no other services. Consider this a New Year's dream brought on by the intoxicating nature of the season.]
DirecTV Losing Fox Affils In Four Markets Following a breakdown in retrans renewal negotiations with Northwest Broadcasting, DirecTV will be dropping at midnight the Northwest Fox affiliates in Yakima and Spokane, both Washington; KMVU Medford, Ore.; and Binghamton, N.Y. By Harry A. Jessell TVNewsCheck December 31, 2010 3:23 PM EST http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2010/12/31/48082/directv-losing-fox-affils-in-four-markets The four small-market TV stations of Northwest Broadcasting will be coming off DirecTV at midnight tonight after Northwest and the satellite operator failed to reach an agreement on new retransmission consent payments, according to Northwest President Brian Brady. The stations: KFFX Yakima-Pasco-Richland-Kennewick, Wash.; KMVU Medford-Klamath Falls, Ore.; WICZ Binghamton, N.Y., and KAYU Spokane, Wash. All are Fox affiliates. The loss of service will affect 160,000 homes in the four markets. Brady, who is also the chairman of the Fox affiliate board, would not say what he was asking for in the negotiations or what DirecTV was offering, except in general terms. “All we are looking for is an equitable deal,” he said. “They want us to pay pennies on the dollars. Stations want to be compensated for the value that they bring.” -- ======================================== George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 Mail: antunes at uh dot edu _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
