Editorial Cable Customers as Collateral Damage By THE EDITORIAL BOARD Published: August 9, 2013 CBS and Time Warner Cable have been engaged in a contract fight that has left millions of residents in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Dallas without access to the network’s programming on their TVs and computers for almost a week. There is no claim to moral high ground here, just dollars and cents. CBS wants Time Warner Cable to pay more for its programming, and it also wants the ability to sell that programming to other distributors of TV shows and movies like Netflix and Intel, which is planning a new television service. Time Warner Cable says it is willing to pay more but does not want to change its contracts with CBS. The terms of the contracts have not been made public. Lost in such cable battles are frustrated consumers, who pay for TV shows through their cable bills but have no representation at the negotiating table even though media and cable companies rely on public resources like spectrum and rights of way. (On Friday, the chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission said she would intervene if the two sides did not reach a deal.) There were 91 blackouts of TV networks on cable and satellite systems across the country last year, up from 12 in 2010, according to the American Television Alliance, a group backed by cable companies. Contract disputes are increasing because new technology has strengthened the hands of networks like CBS by giving them other outlets, including Netflix, Amazon and Apple, through which to sell their content. The networks are rapidly becoming less dependent on traditional distributors like cable and satellite companies. While Time Warner Cable customers could find ways to watch CBS by, for instance, buying antennas, why should they have to when their cable bill includes the cost of that programming? In fact, the cost of expanded basic cable, the most popular service, has risen 3.4 times faster than inflation from 1995 to 2009, according to a 2011 report by the F.C.C. (The number of channels in cable plans has also gone up during that time, but most consumers watch only a fraction of the networks to which they have access.) Not surprisingly, those higher bills have led to rising profits for both broadcasters like CBS and distributors like Time Warner Cable. We don’t presume to advise media or cable companies on their negotiating tactics. But infuriating customers who are already annoyed at ever higher costs and have other options — like giving up their cable connections and relying only on broadcast signals and Netflix — seems a bad business move for both sides. These disputes can only make those options seem more appealing. Meet The New York Times’s Editorial Board »
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 05:11:12 +0000
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