said by rody_44: Its going to go away. Just like it being free for the cable companies to transmit has already gone away. What use to be free is now costing the cable companies over 2.50 per month per subscriber. The fox stations alone get well over half of that. When abc, cbs , and nbc see how well fox made out they will be right behind fox on them demands. The only hope is maybe nbc will hold out since they are affiliated with comcast. Other than that we are all SOL. The cable companies have no choice but to just pay what the networks want. Its pay up or dont transmit it. Yea, like any cable company could give up abc, cbs, nbc, or fox. Just the way its going to be. Time to go back to the old satellite model where the locals were pulled in OTA. Its especially hard on the small cable companies left out there. They have no negotiating power at all. The only thing they can do is pay up or fold up. Its only the beginning.
I've wondered why the industry doesn't use their lobbying influence to fight this. Why should what is essentially being broadcast for free using the public airwaves cost them money to retransmit? They are doing the stations a service by increasing their viewers and thus ad dollars.. If they don't like it, give back your free spectrum and lease it from the federal government like other industries have to.
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