If Fox believes that withdrawing programming from 4 million households is its best negotiating tactic, then I would ask the FCC to intervene and mandate continued carriage and arbitration.
Sen. John Kerry • Threatening to get in the middle of the spat between Time Warner Cable and News Corp. over licensing fees. Rupert Murdoch’s crew wants a bigger share of the pie, and have forced the cable company to the edge. If they don’t come to an agreement tonight, Time Warner Cable channels will go black. If they do, that means a number of prominent college football bowls won’t be seen, all because of greed. We hope Kerry successfully gets the FCC involved, because these petulant children need it. source
turning fortyLordy Lordy, Brett Favre’s age; despite that, he easily led the Minnesota Vikings over his former team, the Green Bay Packers, last night; bravo, bro
21.8 millionpeople watched the game on ESPN last night – the largest audience in cable TV history; makes all the preseason hemming and hawing worth it, right? source
I get the sense, when you listen to what he’s actually saying, that he’s talking mostly about the ideological-leaning networks rather than CNN. He’s talking about the back and forth and sometimes one-sidedness that you might get on other cable channels.
An anonymous CNN executive • Discussing Obama’s recent criticism of the cable news cycle and how damaging it is for the political process. Now, we could be wrong about this, but, doesn’t CNN dwell on one issue for six hours just like MSNBC or Fox? If so, you guys are complicit in the crime. This Politico article does a good job breaking down the issue. • source
pro Consumer groups very favorable towards the rules. “This is a tremendous day for millions of us who have been clamoring to keep the internet free from discrimination,” said Free Press executive director John Silver.
con After the new rules were announced, wireless providers collectively freaked out. So did big cable companies like Comcast. A bunch of Republican congressmen also submitted a bill threatening to cut the FCC’s funding.
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2004 Comcast made a $54 billion bid for Disney out of the blue. Everyone laughed at them because it was so unexpected. Their shareholders didn’t like it.
2009 Comcast has spent years saving up massive amounts of cash in their coffers. They’re glancing around. Investors are concerned they may do a repeat.
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