Cablevision Not Murdoch’s Only Problem

Cablevision’s battle with NewsCorp over retransmission fees is not Rupert Murdoch’s only regulatory problem at the moment. Leo Porter began his post titled “Why the Web Mustn’t Become the New TV” with the news that “A consortium of rivals are gathering to impede media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s bid to gain total control of [British] cable outlet BSkyB.”

The anti-Murdoch consortium wrote to the British government last week saying “We believe that the proposed takeover could have serious and far-reaching consequences for media plurality.” Besides a group of UK newspaper publishers, the letter was also signed by executives of the BBC and BT, the UK’s biggest telephone company.

Smaller Cable Nets Squeezed Out?

An interesting post from NewTeeVee on how smaller cable networks may be forced off systems as they devote more money and bandwidth to the bigfoot “must carry” networks such as those from Disney, NBCU, TimeWarner and Discovery. The post discusses how AT&T U-verse let its contract with Crown Media to lapse on September 1st.

Disney and NBCU are a double threat as they also own over-the-air stations that are must-carry as per FCC regulations.

Networks Could Ditch Free TV

… screams the headline in the “ink on paper” version of the story in today’s Newsday. (Page A34)

AP Business Writer Andrew Vanacore quotes Rupert Murdoch saying “(programming) can no longer be supported solely by advertising revenues.”

The article touches on how the networks are attempting to boost their revenues from retransmission fees and possibly by ditching their OTA affiliates and becoming dual revenue stream cable nets.

(Newsday’s on-line version carries the wire version headline. And the on-line versions are longer than the print version.)