Every once in awhile, I miss my compadres at Adelphia, but this weekend was not one of them. The slapfight between Lin Broadcasting (Ch. 4's owner) and Time Warner assured that the people who do the real work would be taking the brunt of the frustration from the people caught in the middle...us customers. This might sound like apologizing or ass kissin, but it isn't. Lord knows both can be greedy pigs, but Time Warner is in the right this time. From my former life, I can tell you that the local stations in a area have agreements with the cable, satellite, and Fios guys for carriage. There is actually a lawsuit waged by local tv stations to get on a given system. Now Lin TV wants paid, for something they really aren't entitled to. My experience with this is when Fox 29 was at the end of its deal with Dish Network and ran on screen crawls encouraging everybody to go get cable. Every station is a little fickle. You dance with who you have at a given moment.
Lin TV owns 12 stations in markets mostly around the great lakes. When Fox 29 came to the end of their agreement almost two years ago, they let TW keep showing them while the negotiations kept going. 29's parents had a lot at stake. The same firm owns NBC in LA.
Lin decided to cut off Buffalo, but the local station that shows the Packers to Green Bay (that had to be ugly) as well as their other markets. If I am an advertiser (like I am now), I'm pissed because they just took over 330,000 out of the loop because they felt like it. If I'm a paying cable customer (like I am now), I'm miffed because there are two channels doing nothing, yet I'm stuck paying for them.
While they talk, it would behoove Lin to put the channels back up. Both sides are going to take a beating for their stances, but Lin has a chance to actively be a "good guy" and place their signals back on.
I guess my point is that moving to Dish, Verizon, etc doesn't insulate you from such foolishness as they have to work with broadcasters under similar agreements. I'm not saying that because I used to be there or that my former Amherst office had a thousand people waiting for antenna on Saturday, but in the battle of overstuffed corporate entities, Lin is the one who could lose this time and throw the switch to put their signal on.
I can appreciate taking a stand, but perhaps there was a better way of digging in their heels.
Mrmike's Journal
My Podcast Link
10/06/2008 13:51 #45962
The foolishness of Ch. 4 and Time WarnerCategory: work
10/06/2008 09:43 #45955
The "Debate"Category: politics
Just in case you haven't seen it yet...
10/03/2008 14:39 #45919
Homer Votes!"Maybe in Ohio, but not in America"
Hee!
tinypliny - 10/03/08 21:53
hahahaha..
hahahaha..
gardenmama - 10/03/08 20:38
Great comic relief - thanks.
Great comic relief - thanks.
metalpeter - 10/03/08 19:54
That was awesome
That was awesome
libertad - 10/03/08 18:55
Thank you so much for making me laugh really hard!
Thank you so much for making me laugh really hard!
10/02/2008 15:08 #45895
Say after me ~~~~~~~~~Category: work
I WILL NOT complain about my job,
EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!
gardenmama - 10/02/08 16:02
Eeeeeeewwwwwww! Makes my crappy job not seem so bad after all!
Eeeeeeewwwwwww! Makes my crappy job not seem so bad after all!
mrmike - 10/02/08 15:23
Nah, we don't have cows here.
Nah, we don't have cows here.
drew - 10/02/08 15:14
Is this at your zoo? And is he really "in?" (He could be on the other side--right? Please say he is on the other side!)
Is this at your zoo? And is he really "in?" (He could be on the other side--right? Please say he is on the other side!)
tinypliny - 10/02/08 15:12
Holy moly. I shall not complain about anything ever again.
Holy moly. I shall not complain about anything ever again.
10/02/2008 14:34 #45894
Rainforest FallsCategory: work
I don't often get a hand in naming something, so I brag, not only for the sake of the great 25k push, but also because you can't help but take a good picture while inside. Just close your mouth before you look up.
This is a cool gig
Missing Image ;(
This is a cool gig
metalpeter - 10/02/08 19:02
great pictures
great pictures
james - 10/02/08 16:17
Wow, that looks super fun. Can't wait to go.
Wow, that looks super fun. Can't wait to go.
gardenmama - 10/02/08 16:03
This is so cool! I can't wait to go back. We really had a great time when we visited.
This is so cool! I can't wait to go back. We really had a great time when we visited.
theecarey - 10/02/08 15:47
awesome! The Zoo appears to be successfully carrying out its long term goals. I remember when there was talk of a rain forest. So great to see some of the insider stuff! I love that the zoo is really a year-round activity to enjoy. Reminds me, I need to renew my membership so I can see all these new things going on.
awesome! The Zoo appears to be successfully carrying out its long term goals. I remember when there was talk of a rain forest. So great to see some of the insider stuff! I love that the zoo is really a year-round activity to enjoy. Reminds me, I need to renew my membership so I can see all these new things going on.
tinypliny - 10/02/08 15:13
That looks SO beautiful. I NEED to get to the Zoo! It's all indeed happening at the zoo!!
That looks SO beautiful. I NEED to get to the Zoo! It's all indeed happening at the zoo!!
Thanks for the good explaining hope something gets worked out soon.
Hey Peter,
The reason why the channels aren't ala carte is the decreasing numbers of owners. The talk about that is mostly a case of somebody wanted ESPNs but not the Disneys. That don't fly because they share the same owner and want to squeeze as much as is possible about the market. It's more cost effective for Time Warner to sell chunks or blocks of channels than trying to itemize. They can itemize channels but they don't want to as they make more ad dollars from them, which would disappear if we could pick and choose.
There is a non-duplication agreement that affect what else you were asking about. I remember back in the day, if a show got preempted, you could often find it on canadian tv. That's why when you sit down to watch the Office on NBC, there is often a dark screen or infomercials on the CBC. Time Warner tried to get around that for the sake of the football game. It's more of an understanding than a law, but LIN TV yelled foul when Time Warner tried to bring in the feed from the Rochester CBS affiliate. So, the FCC sided with LIN TV and said no.
And you're right, for the local stations with satelite, you either have to get antenna from them or another smaller dish. None of which protects you from the shenanigans like we've been seeing from Time Warner and Lin TV this week
Hey Mike thanks for posting about this from your point of view but I have a question. Back before I had cable there where some companies that gave you the locals and they you paid based by what stations you got. It wasn't like it is now where there are all these giant blocks (maybe I'm miss remembering since I didn't have cable). I know congress wants to make cable go to the al le carte system and Cable (as an industry) doesn't want to do it. What I don't understand is two things. Since CBS carries a lot of sports and that is important why can't cable go with a CBS station say out of Rochester and ERIE PA. My other question is why not give customers the Option to Pay for CBS and have it added to there Bill and offer that as an option. I understand that time warner says that they don't want to make cable cost more because of one station, but most people are paying for stations they don't watch anyways. For example when I got IFC and Sundance Channel as a block it came with some other stations I have no idea what they where and I never watched them On a side note I find it interesting that on the WIVB ads they metntion Dish Network and not Direct TV, I thought that was Odd, maybe I'm wrong but I thought with Direct TV you got two Dishes one for the national stations and one for Local but I could be wrong. But if that is correct why not mention Direct TV. I think and this is just me here that they know they get there power from people watching football and if people go to Direct they might get the NFL network and not watch WIVB at all but that is just me.