October 2013 6 World (Continued on Page 10) Those included popular programs like the PGA golf championship, the NFL (American football) season and two soap operas, in addition to NCISand60Minutes. According to some reports, the dispute erupted in August in order to have sufficient time to resolve it before the NFL games started in early September. (Note: The CBS-TWC dispute was resolved on September 2, exactly one month after it started.) TWC also pulled CBS-owned cable network Showtime, home to Dexter and Ray Donovan, two top series. The cable industry is up in arms over retrans fee because it tends to increase cable subscription prices, since cable continues to offer bundled packages, instead of a la carte selection. In the early days broadcast channels were happy to negotiate carriage for cable channels owned by the broadcasters, but now the focus is in getting cash from the cable operators. Reportedly, by 2015 retrans fees will increase to $4.3 billion from $2.4 billion in 2012. Nonetheless, CBS was able to quietly negotiate retrans fee with other cable operators without any issue, while in its negotiations with broadcasters, TWC has had the tendency to block the channels. In addition, it has been pointed out that the argument about broadcast channels being FTA is no longer valid since only about five percent of U.S. TV households now receive FTA via aerials, making them, in effect, subscription channels. TWC flashed this message about pulling CBS in New York City Last summer the battle of the giants was between CBS and Time Warner Cable (not associated with Warner Bros.) over retrans, the fee that cable operators have paid broadcast channels since 1992. The position of broadcasters has been that their channels garner high ratings and yet get lower fees than some cable channels with ratings of less than one percent. Reportedly, CBS was asking for an increase to $2 per sub per month from the previous fee of about $1 (a similar popular channel like ESPN is said to be getting a $5.54 fee per sub a month). Withnegotiationsbreakingdown, onAugust 2TWCpulledCBS from3.2millionsubscribers (out of its 24 million) in the New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas and five others areas with a note on the CBS cable dial also stating that it was “providing replacement programming from Starz Kids and Family.” On August 4, CBS counteracted with newspaper ads indicating the programming TWC customers were missing. Retrans...Again CBS countered with this newspaper ad TWC posted this message in Los Angeles 14 x 30’ THE WORLD OF LOST PACKAGES AND THE MOTLEY CREW THAT TURNS THEM INTO GOLD! Nat Abraham, President, Distribution t 416.366.6588 x 114 e nabraham@breakthroughentertainment.com Kate Blank, Director, Int’l Distribution t 416.366.6588 x 231 e kblank@breakthroughentertainment.com Jodi Mackie, Int’l Sales Executive t 416.366.6588 x 112 e jmackie@breakthroughentertainment.com 122 Sherbourne Street Toronto Ontario Canada M5A 2R4 t 4I6.766.6588 f 416.769.1436 distribution@breakthroughentertainment.com breakthroughentertainment.com
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