With pay-TV subscribers who pay retransmission consent fees in...
With pay-TV subscribers who pay retransmission consent fees in slow decline, broadcast network owners are forced to become far more aggressive financially, a BTIG Research analyst said. Some networks are taking over their affiliates in NFL cities, analyst Richard Greenfield…
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said Tuesday in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1pbHL4S). Fox now captures 100 percent of retrans dollars and “can use its owned and operated heft and power in National Football Conference markets to drive retrans to new highs” as it negotiates with multichannel video programming distributors, he said. Fox bought CW and MyNetworkTV stations in Charlotte and didn’t renew its affiliation agreement with WCCB Charlotte, owned by Bahakel (CD April 19/13 p21). Bahakel was left to take the CW affiliation in Charlotte, Greenfield said. Bahakel has to squeeze whatever little retrans it can out of an affiliation “that comes with no major sports rights or meaningful programming leverage,” he said. Fox reportedly is looking to transform the Tribune-affiliated Seattle station into a Fox-owned and operated station, he said. Like Charlotte, Seattle is an NFC market, he said. It’s a reminder that all the power in broadcast TV resides with the network, and that “networks are increasingly taking the economics of broadcast TV back from the affiliates,” Greenfield said. “The affiliates are helpless, left to settle for whatever economics their broadcast parents are willing to allow them to have (for now).” Fox had no comment.