Tired of exorbitant pay-TV bills? Sick of punitive early termination fees? Frustrated with pay-TV blackouts of your favorite entertainment and sports programming?
Welcome to TVfreedom.org, the place to go to stand up for TV fairness.
Our bipartisan coalition of local broadcasters and network affiliates (including minority and religious broadcasters), multicast networks, independent broadcaster-related organizations, manufacturers and community advocates launched this week to:
- Tell the truth about the state of the U.S. video marketplace;
- Call out pay-TV’s political gamesmanship to boost record profits;
- Protect consumers against pay-TV blackouts, rising cable bills and punitive termination fees; and
- Ensure broadcasters are receiving fair compensation for their popular TV programming.
These goals represent TVfreedom.org’s commitment to building a brighter TV future that maintains the wide choice of programming access and options available to today’s TV viewers.
We are taking a stand because we see first-hand how pay-TV is stifling innovation and repeatedly using their own customers as bargaining chips to keep a stranglehold on prices and programming in the marketplace at the expense of consumers.
Telling the Truth about Pay-TV
Recently, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV and DISH, among other pay-TV providers, initiated a flashy public relations campaign aimed at getting special treatment to bypass the existing system, called “retransmission consent.” Currently, that system – enacted by Congress – provides broadcasters with a means to seek fair compensation from pay-TV providers for the programming that they create, produce and transmit over their networks. This system is in place for all content creators, including less popular cable television channels.
Despite the fact that these less popular cable channels are paid, in some cases, three times as much as the most popular broadcast-TV programming, these pay-TV companies are seeking unprecedented government intervention to gain an unfair advantage and avoid paying fair market rates for this material. TVfreedom.org believes that in a fair and free market, where companies engage in good-faith retransmission consent negotiations, programming is accessible and valued.
Some big cable and satellite TV service providers despise the fact that millions of Americans are voting against them with their remotes. During the 2012-13 television season, 96 of the top 100 broadcast-TV programs dominated the primetime program rankings. Yet for years, cable and satellite TV customers have been overpaying for lower-rated cable channels that they don’t want or watch.
If pay-TV providers were really concerned about consumers’ ever-increasing monthly bills due to content, shouldn’t they find more ways to lower those bills rather than find new ways to use cable programming to increase their bills? When it involves their content it is not a problem, but when it involves broadcast-TV content it is suddenly a problem and they are concerned about rising monthly bills for their customers. That line of reasoning is difficult to justify.
The truth is that these retransmission fees paid to TV broadcasters are not responsible for those unpleasant surprises in cable bills that greet customers every month.
Does it make sense that cable channels such as TNT and TBS are receiving two to three more times the compensation in the form of retransmission fees than the most popular broadcast-TV channels are in today’s marketplace?
Just last week, one of the leading pay-TV companies, Time Warner Cable, bragged that it beat its fourth-quarter profit estimates. How? By charging higher fees to make up for losing subscribers.
Need more evidence? According to the latest available data, DirecTV had revenues of $31.2 billion, Time Warner Cable had revenues of $22 billion and the Dish Network had revenues of $14.4 billion – resulting in a collective revenue total of nearly $68 billion annually for just THREE companies.
Protecting Consumer Interests
Unlike any other U.S. consumer communication service over the past 13 years, cable prices have consistently risen annually at more than double the rate of inflation.
While bloated pay-TV companies complain about rising retransmission fees, they continue to charge more and more per subscriber while pocketing huge profits. Yet even with record revenues, cable and satellite companies continue to beg Congress to lower their costs in order to increase their profits and stock prices – not to save consumers money.
It’s time for DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, DISH and other pay-TV providers who are taking advantage of viewers to tell the truth and give consumers the ability to simply watch TV free of their extra fees and threats.
What’s Next?
In the coming weeks and months, the coalition will expand its charter membership and work closely with consumer and community groups, as well as public safety and law enforcement organizations to stand up for TV fairness.
Make sure to check back regularly to find out the latest news on retransmission consent, additional members and partners, important new TVfreedom.org facts and to learn how you can take action to hold pay-TV and their allies accountable for rising cable bills, TV blackouts and early termination fees.
