Comcast boss Burke flip-flops on retransmission fees By CLAIRE ATKINSON NY POST
4:24 AM, September 15, 2011 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/ca_ble_converter_l58n52Y0Cc5FrTVjwBrbbL That’s one wicked about-face for Steve Burke. The Comcast executive, after fiercely resisting for 12 years paying broadcasters any retransmission fees, appeared to find religion yesterday, surprising a media conference audience by promising to doggedly pursue “millions of dollars” in -- wait for it -- retransmission fees for his NBCU unit. “Retransmission consent dollars is not a good thing for the cable side of Comcast, but it’s going to be a very good thing for NBCU,” he told a host of investors at Bank of America’s annual media conference. Burke said: “It will be hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars for NBC. I don’t think we’re going to be leading the charge, but we will try to get compensation similar to CBS, ABC and Fox.” Burke is looking for cable, satellite and telco companies to pay to carry programming carried by owned stations and affiliates. Fellow broadcast networks are gaining anywhere between 25 cents a month to 75 cents a month per subscriber and NBCU, which has two broadcast networks, NBC and Telemundo, wants its slice of the action. Comcast bosses Brian Roberts and Burke, according to sources, have made a calculation that they’re better off focusing on creating value on the content side of their business than on the cable side because valuations are much better for content businesses. “They’re saying, ‘Let’s get on the retransmission bandwagon for as much as we can,’” said one senior industry executive. “The RSNs [regional sports networks], retransmission consent and sports, they’re all the money hogs in the process,” said one upset content boss who fears distributors will shrink the pie for all the other players seeking affiliate fee increases because of the moves by NBCU, CBS and other broadcasters. Meanwhile, the pay-TV industry lost around 380,000 customers in the second quarter, according to Bernstein Research’s Craig Moffett. “I have spent 12 years trying to stop retransmission payments. It’s a difficult thing to try and figure out the right balance,” Burke said in his presentation. Comcast will see retrans revenue jump from $109 million in 2011 to $147 million in 2012, based on its ownership of NBC and Telemundo TV stations, according to SNL Kagan. By comparison, News Corp., which owns The Post, is forecast to reap twice that figure, at $308 million in 2012. Rocco Commisso, CEO of Mediacom, a Middletown, NY-based cable operator, has been petitioning the Federal Commission Commission to look at such retransmission fees charged by broadcast networks. Commisso told The Post, “It seems like the FCC is more concerned about bringing broadband to low-income households, as opposed to taking care of the consumer pocketbook by dealing with retransmission consent dollars.” “Steve Burke thinks that broadcasting provides the best upside. It seems they have a lot of optimism about revenue growth on the station side,” added Kagan analyst Robin Flynn. Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/ca_ble_converter_l58n52Y0Cc5FrTVjwBrbbL#ixzz1Y60ZWAII _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
