FOX is really pizzing me off...

The owners of Fox, I believe it's "Newscorp" or something like that, are demanding that Directv pay them 40% more for the next year in order to carry FX, History Channel, and a bunch of Fox sports channels. Doesn't effect local Fox or Fox News. Directv says they already pay them a billion a year and won't pay 40% more, and I don't blame them. I sure don't want a 40% increase in my bill to pay greedy Fox.

So, if they don't reach an agreement I'll lose FX on the 1st. Rest of the channels I won't miss, but I'm sure a lot of people will. I'll miss out on Sons Of Anarchy, American Horror Story, and Sunny in Philadelphia. Thanks a lot Fox.

Gotta love fox for trying. But I think in the end fox will back down on that crazy amount.

Thats the cost of all those hacker lawsuits Fox will have to pay.

Didn't they try this stunt last year?

Annoyed wrote:

Didn't they try this stunt last year?

There are two separate things going on. For cable television stations that are required by law to carry local channels the cable companies never paid the networks. So, Fox and others have tried to get cable companies to pay for the rights to broadcast their local channels. This is different from other networks that do not broadcast over the air. They have always been paid for by the cable companies. This has been the root of recent disputes between the networks and cable companies.

In this instance its about the fees they get for airing the cable channels, not the over the air channels. As the consolidation of networks has grown, a network like Fox or NBC, etc now can demand whatever amount they want to broadcast their lineup. Clearly DirectTV will be screwed if they don't carry the Fox channels, and would lose tons of subscribers. So Fox is in a pretty good situation. Of course, if DirectTV didn't carry Fox then Fox would lose a lot of money, too.

Basically its a bunch of billionaires fighting for more money at the expense of the average person.

Annoyed wrote:

Didn't they try this stunt last year?

Last year they screwed over Dishnet and some cable companies like Comcast. They didn't put the screws to all the providers at once, probably to keep them from joining together in lawsuits. Dish dropped them for awhile last year then caved and paid. I don't think Directv should pay, if they do they'll have to raise rates and lose customers, if they don't they won't carry FX etc and will lose customers. Either scenario they will lose customers so they may as well go with the option that keeps the cost down.

eber322 wrote:

Annoyed wrote:

Didn't they try this stunt last year?

Last year they screwed over Dishnet and some cable companies like Comcast. They didn't put the screws to all the providers at once, probably to keep them from joining together in lawsuits. Dish dropped them for awhile last year then caved and paid. I don't think Directv should pay, if they do they'll have to raise rates and lose customers, if they don't they won't carry FX etc and will lose customers. Either scenario they will lose customers so they may as well go with the option that keeps the cost down.

I don't see what they can sue for. Fox puts out a product and they want to charge a certain price for it. Nothing illegal about that.

UNLESS you feel that Fox has a monoply in that their are only 4 major networks and between them they control like 95 percent of the market, or more. Then under existing anti trust laws DirectTv can claim that Fox is in the position of having the power to put their customers out of business. Its one of the finer points of anti trust law and I suspect given the current climate in the country DirectTV would lose. And unless DirectTv got an injunction they would be without Fox for years while the case was in court.

I think the whole thing is being caused by pirates. You can now watch every show quite easily for free using torrents, or for a miniscule fee if you want to go Usenet and protect yourself from being caught. TV ratings are down across the board as people are giving up on having to watch commercials.

So, what can you do? See if DirectTv or some group of people who have DirectTv have organized a boycott. Sometimes these groups pick a channel or two and try and get a large number of people not to watch it to put pressure on Fox.

If anything causes piracy it will be this move by Fox. If directv drops them, where do you think most of their customers will watch those shows instead? And it will all be caused by Fox.

Hmmm, I still have my Fox channels. I checked both the directv and the Fox sites that were posting their sides of the battle. Both simply say a deal was reached with out saying what it was.

Makes me think Fox probably caved on the huge increase, but made directv agree to a nondisclosure to keep Dish, Comcast, etc from pitching a fit that they are paying more. Then again the opposite could be true and directv doesn't want to admit they gave in.