Media General’s Tampa, Fla., NBC affil says the satellite service’s subscribers will lose its signal if a new retransmission consent contract isn’t signed by midnight, Sept. 30.
RETRANS
WFLA Tampa Says No Deal Yet With Dish
Media General NBC affiliate WFLA Tampa, Fla. (DMA 14) today announced that its retransmission consent contract with Dish Network expires on Sept. 30 at midnight ET and, the station said: “At this time it appears unlikely that a new agreement will be reached. If a new retransmission consent contract is not reached by Sept. 30, by law, Dish cannot carry certain local television stations owned, operated, or serviced by Media General Inc. on its satellite system.
“Our highly-rated television station is an important asset to our local community and it is unfortunate that Dish does not recognize our fair market value,” said General Manager Brad Moses. “Although we have successfully completed agreements with other cable and satellite operators, Dish has refused to reach a similar agreement. We continue to negotiate with Dish to reach a fair, market-based deal before our contract expires.”
Viewers can receive updates and register their support for WFLA by visiting www.dontdropWFLA.com. The station added: “In the event that WFLA is no longer carried by Dish, viewers may continue to watch their local news, lifestyle and sports programs, as well as top-rated prime time and syndicated programming, over-the-air via antenna or by switching to an alternative pay-TV service provider, including Direct TV, Bright House Networks and Verizon FiOS in the Tampa Bay area.”
Comments (4)
Don Thompson says:
September 16, 2013 at 5:33 pm
Under Rep.Eshoo’s draft retransmission consent bill, the Federal Communications Commission would have explicit statutory authority to grant interim carriage of a television broadcast station during a retransmission consent negotiation impasse. Moreover, stations that elect retransmission consent would be carried on a separate programming tier that no consumer would have a to buy in order to obtain access to non-broadcast programming. Such an approach will encourage broadcasters to invest in local content as their “leverage” with MVPDS instead of leaning on friendly federal regulations, AND establish actual demand for TV station programming, as opposed to the current system that manipulates demand through a you-must-buy-everything approach. It would not surprise me if stations whose signal strength is weak to the point that off-air service is unreliable in many households end up paying MVPDs for carriage.
Wagner Pereira says:
September 16, 2013 at 7:45 pm
And considering that I just saw new TWC Commercials in NYC for Phone/Internet and Cable for $79 a month PLUS A $300 VISA GIFT CARD, as well as what we know from Verizon FiOS claiming their NYC subs were up 16% just in the first 2 weeks after WCBS was blacked out, and the comments last week that TWC suffered customer losses, clearly TWC suffered a BIG HIT blacking out local broadcasters and is desperate to regain subs giving a 3 unit bundle away for $10 more than one can get 30Mbps Internet alone from TWC (not to mention the $300 Visa Rewards Card). As Harry has pointed out, roughly 33% of viewing on MVPDs is the local OTA stations. It is time MVPDs started treating OTA Broadcasters accordingly.
Keith ONeal says:
September 16, 2013 at 10:28 pm
Congress and the FCC needs to REPEAL the 1992 Cable/Satellite Act so that the Cable/Satellite providers can start providing programming a la carte.
Wagner Pereira says:
September 16, 2013 at 11:18 pm
a la carte will be even a bigger mess with people paying what the pay for cable now and getting 10 channels.