Broadcaster, Cable Bickering Leads To Record Number of TV Content Blackouts

If you're a cable customer you've probably been met with at least one cable retrans blackout. It's what happens when broadcasters and cable operators can't behave like adults and agree on rates for a new programming contract, so instead decide that whining and punishing paying customers is the best course of action. The feuds usually involve months of public bickering, public announcements, ads and on-screen tickers declaring that the other guy is the villain, then blacked out content for paying customers, who almost never see refunds for the inconvenience. These disputes usually end with both sides agreeing to a new confidential contract, with those costs then passed on to the consumer. Rinse, wash, and repeat. Despite 2015 being the year that cord cutting and Internet video finally started to make some real headway (with the launch of Sling TV, HBO Now, and an increasing array of original programming from the likes of Netflix), the legacy pay TV industry continued to bicker like children. In fact, an analysis by the Wall Street Journal showed more retrans blackouts than ever before last year, and 2016 is already looking to likely break that record:

"Television viewers around the country endured a record 193 blackouts in 2015, up from 94 the previous year and eight in 2010, due to an intensifying battle between cable companies and the broadcasters who provide a key part of their programming. Already so far in 2016, at least 13 new blackouts have occurred in markets from Tucson, Ariz., and Tulsa, Okla., to Lexington, Ky., and Lafayette, La., according to pay-TV carriers and their allies."

The cable and broadcast industry is caught in a death spiral it can't seem to escape. Programmers demand more money for the same content, and the biggest cable operators ultimately agree, passing on those costs to the consumer (though not innocently taking every opportunity to tack on some hikes of their own). Smaller cable operators have started finding that the profit margins are just getting too tight, so they've considered getting out of the TV business entirely. Customers, meanwhile, tired of what's often bi-annual price hikes for huge bundles of unwatched content, increasingly look to other options. Here's what this kind of unsustainability looks like in graphic form:

Broadcast TV ratings are collapsing ....@RichBTIG pic.twitter.com/Q4euIwJOwr

— Ted Hearn (@TedatACA) January 18, 2016

One of the problems here is that customers (many of them older and frightened by Internet video) are losing access to content they're paying for, and very rarely do they see refunds. Regulators have paid some lip service to this being idiotic, but have so far kept a hands-off attitude to what's treated as run of the mill business disputes. And that hands-off attitude may be the right approach longer term; these feuds are simply a cooperative game of seppuku, and the industry remains collectively oblivious that it's expediting the death of the very cash cow it's bickering over. Permalink | Comments | Email This Story