Providers Petition Congress

[Loose Lug Nutz]

DIRECTV, DISH (and 9 Others) Petition Congress

Help! say service providers and related organizations in a letter sent yesterday to Congressional leaders.

The subject, of course, is retransmission consent and the stranglehold that broadcasters appear to have over subscription TV providers. As noted by Moody's, broadcasters have a long-term winning hand in retrans battles because they "have some of the most popular programming content that the cable and other pay TV companies need in order to keep subscribers and stay competitive." Say the 11 service providers: Congress should "restore balance to the unique retransmission consent process and take steps to protect consumers against either seeing access to broadcast signals priced out of their reach or having that access denied to them."

In addition to DIRECTV and DISH, signers on the letter include the American Cable Association, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Charter, Insight, MediaCom, OPASTCO, Suddenlink and Time Warner Cable.

[corzy]

What does this mean Lugs? "I'm from canada and they think im slow ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

[southaven1981]

well for people here in the states it means that all the providers are getting upset that they have to keep paying higher prices to the companies that own many of the Local stations that are rebroadcast either on Sat, or cable.. And they are asking congress to help with the price war.. they will say that they (providers) have to keep payinghigher prices so that they can pay the original broadcasters fees to pick up the signal, that is free for people to view via antenna, and rebroadcast via sat , or cable.. which makes the the sat and cable comps raise thir prices to keep up with "supply and demand"...

[corzy]

i see, thanks for the response.

[misha4282]

YOu would think the "providers" would pay the "re-transmitters" How do the providers think their signals get out to the customers.... rabbit ears? It's all about how much they can get and screw the end user......us. Bad enough I have to watch stupid commercial to see anything let alone pay to see it all.