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As you may know by now, Charter Communications and the Walt Disney Company failed to reach a distribution agreement last Thursday, leaving Spectrum customers in the dark for ~20 TV channels, including the ESPN family of networks. As much as we've heard about the demise of cable TV, rights fees from cable and satellite providers still make up a large portion of income for companies like Disney, who got $2.2 billion alone annually from Charter in their previous agreement. When you ask your average cord-cutter why they left cable or satellite, cost is a key factor. Nobody likes their bills going up, and pay TV has been notorious for pricing. There's also the factor of streaming services' exclusive content (that may show up later on traditional TV, but that's another story). It's here that push comes to shove with regards to Charter's negotiation: they'll pay Disney a fair rate IF cable subscribers also get Disney's streaming content included. Disney has rebuked that offer, claiming that it would be detrimental for their bottom line if the Disney bundle, allegedly still in the red, were given away free for Spectrum customers. To this point, I call bullshit - Warner Bros. Discovery offers Max for anyone who subscribes to HBO via cable, satellite, or cable-with-buffering, and they have yet to complain about this agreement. Now, one should ask what the future holds for pay TV. Charter Communications isn't trying to kill their cable operations, currently serving around 17.5 million customers. Neither is Comcast, DirecTV, YouTube TV, or the myriad of other providers. If you were one of these companies, how would you react to a constantly shifting landscape of distribution? It's gotten to the point where Charter has made a deal with Fubo to give Spectrum customers a reduced price for signing up to the streaming television service. This is a long way of asking what y'all think is going to happen to television, both in content and distribution. Edward Mass fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Sep 6, 2023 |
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Sep 6, 2023 21:33
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| # ? Oct 16, 2024 02:11 |
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