Television stations must obtain a license from the Federal Communications Commission because the useful radio frequency spectrum is limited and can only carry so much traffic. Once licensed, a broadcaster is permitted to sell advertising to earn its income. However, an important criterion in obtaining and keeping a license to use the limited public bandwidth is that the broadcasting station serve the PUBLIC INTEREST.
Almost 40 years ago a Boston-based station, WHDH, learned this lesson when the FCC pulled its license to use Channel 5 and gave it to a competing group of broadcasters who promised more local programming operating under the call sign WCVB (Citizens Voice of Boston).
A new question of "operation in the public interest" arises in Utica with the demands by WKTV that Time Warner Cable pay WKTV for the use of WKTV's content -- content that the FCC has authorized to be placed for free on the public airwaves in the Utica area -- and content that is of no interest to anyone living outside the Utica area.
Back when cable TV was in its infancy locally, it was called a COMMUNITY ANTENNA Television System, i.e., people using cable were using it as their antenna. For local TV stations, that is still the case today.
WKTV knows that any money it charges to Time Warner for "use" of its signal will ultimately be charged back to the cable subscriber.
So why should people choosing cable as their antenna have to pay WKTV a charge, while those using a regular antenna do not? It would appear that WKTV is not operating in the public interest when it blocks its signal from 70,000 or so local viewers . . . especially after going days without over-the-air broadcasts a few months back.
WKTV appears to be changing the model for local television from free over-the-air to pay-cable TV. If that is the model it wishes to operate under, then, perhaps, its air spectrum could be better used for some other purpose.
6 comments:
The Town of New Hartford Board had a letter from Time Warner indicating substantial rate increases, effective sometime in January or February 2011.
I receive my TWC bill online only and this last one had notice of the rate increases to be effective with the February billing. The price for cable, phone, and internet is outrageous and rivals my NatGrid bill. The quality (or should I say lack thereof) of the programming on all these additional channels astounds me. One would think that with all the channels, very creative people could write great scripts and actually get a break to obtain a national audience. Instead, we get to watch the antics of fat, slutty drunks in the name of "reality".
WKTV by it's own admission is available for free with an antenna. The station has gone into great detail in decribing how one can purchase an antenna & hook it up to recieve it's signal for free. So, the question arises. Isn't WKTV for all intents & purposes a free broadcast medium? It's seems to me that WKTV is holding it's cable subscribers hostage in order to squeeze money from Time Warner. What the station wants is to paint TW as the bad guy in hopes that the public relations backlash against TW will help KTV's cause. If WKTV cared about it's viewers they would allow TW to carry the signal until this situation is resolved, instead of worrying about how to raise it's profit margin.
Of course, I think the Smith and Sinclair (Channels 43 and 68) are using this license fee as a way to make money for a service that has been offered for free. I don't mind TW getting tough with local broadcasters for the 10 cents per subscriber they want, but I wish Time Warner would show the same toughness against ESPN which charges over $3 per subscriber.
This is a bad time for the cable companies. Dish and DirecTV offer locals for about $1 each ($5 for the package) which is huge, but not bad when the standard cable lineup is $30 vs. $70.
I agree RH -- The Yankee network charges a lot too . . . I feel like I'm paying a tax because I NEVER watch ESPN or YES but I'm made to pay for both. I'm a news junky not a sports junky. They should put such services in separate tiers and let people buy just what they want.
TWC is worth $100 billion+/- and their fighting about 10 cents/subscriber rich get richer. And subscribers get less and in a few months you will be blogging about why there is no local news station.
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