Fox News wants a massive increase in its cable fees -- which will be paid for by all cable subscriber

[babylonsister]

Fox News wants a massive increase in its cable fees — which will be paid for by all cable subscribers
If that rate goes up to $3 per subscriber, Fox News would be earning more than $1.8 billion annually from affiliate revenue alone
Written by Madeline Peltz & John Knefel
Published 4/20/2023



Following Fox News’ massive defamation settlement paid out to Dominion Election Systems, the network is now pursuing an even more aggressive strategy to raise revenue by increasing the fee paid by cable and satellite providers to $3 per subscriber, according to a new report from Vanity Fair.

Fox News executives insist that sponsors have not been spooked by the Big Lie scandal, nor have the cable and satellite providers that carry the network. In the negotiations that are taking place this spring between Fox and the likes of Comcast, Fox wants to break past the three-buck mark—meaning three dollars per cable household per month, according to sources familiar with the matter. Even though the American cable universe is shrinking, Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch are still extracting billions of dollars.

These fees are the majority of revenue for Fox, more even than advertising, and they are significantly higher than those charged by the network’s competitors. Fox has been able to raise prices and charge disproportionately high rates due to its history of deceptive and aggressive negotiating tactics during contract renewal talks with providers.

more...

https://www.mediamatters.org/murdoch-family/fox-news-wants-massive-increase-its-cable-fees-which-will-be-paid-all-cable

[TheBlackAdder]

1. Ha! Luckily, I cut cable almost 2 years ago and saved over two grand in fees. Don't miss it.

.

One of the reasons was Verizon made it hard to block channels. You could set up custom profiles to skip over them, but you have to enable it each time and then you would still see the channels in the lineup. They did not give a way to block unwanted channels.

So many RW channels I was paying for, but not anymore.

.

[Ritabert]

2. I only have broadcast and BritBox

...so it won't affect me.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

3. Knowing a portion of my cable fee

Was sent to Fake’s Newz whether I watched it or not was one of the reasons I stopped cable altogether. I don’t miss it at all.

[TheBlackAdder]

4. FOX, Newsmax, OAN, etc. love socialism when everyone has to pay for their small viewer base.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

6. Yep.

“Boot-straps” are for the schlubbs, not the fascist elite. They’ll take all the the bailout giveaways they can get their filthy hands on.

[Metaphorical]

5. Ditto

We cut the cable two years ago. We moved to a tmobile wireless router. I honestly can't say I miss cable - poor service, wratchetting fees, and increasingly owned by hard right oligarchs.

[onenote]

7. Fox gets big fees because it has popular services.

Fox's deals with the big multi-channel distributors -- Comcast, Charter, Cox to name three -- get it big bucks because those deals cover not only Fox News but a slew of other channels and services, including the Fox owned and operated broadcast channels, Fox Business, Fox Deportes, and some Fox sports channels as well as video on demand and other ancillary rights.

Cable operators pay the fees because they would lose subscribers if they didn't (and they can't collude with one another to all resist paying).

Does it suck that Fox makes so much? Yes. But for someone who doesn't like sports, the fact that ESPN gets even more than Fox in subscriber fees also sucks.

Finally, broadcasters generally were given a huge gift when Congress enacted the 1992 Cable Act "retransmission consent" provision which allows local stations to demand payment for carriage. Over the past 30 years I've worked on dozens and dozens of retransmission consent negotiations. Interestingly, despite the claim in the article that Fox has a history of "deceptive and aggressive negotiating tactics" my experience has been that, at least for the past 10 years, Fox has not been particularly aggressive nor have they been deceptive. However, affiliate groups, such as Sinclair and Gray, to name just two -- have been and continue to be extremely difficult and shady in those negotiations.

[C_U_L8R]

8. Cable companies are becoming better at saying no.

If Fox wants more bucks, it should be moved to premium tier. And the rest of us won't have to bother blocking it.

[BComplex]

10. Great idea!

Maybe they'll tell fux nooze that they can get the extra $$ if they take the nooze off the package.

[CentralMass]

9. It won't affect me.

[Beachnutt]

11. This

https://unfoxmycablebox.com/

[BComplex]

12. How do we let DirecTV know that we want fux nooze taken off the regular package?

The United States of America needs to start hitting back against those who are deliberately and publicly trying to destroy our democracy. THIS is where so much of that right wing extremism starts and huddles that the FBI is so worried about.
Fux nooze plays in all the FEDERAL prisons. Fux nooze plays on all the UNITED STATES MILITARY BASES. Hate radio not only CREATES these extremists, they tell them where to go to get hooked up on the internet.

If right wing extremism is the "MAIN SECURITY ISSUE" facing the United States today, then the GOVERNMENT needs to fight back and put EXTREME pressure on the radio stations and nooze stations that are feeding this problem.

WTF IS SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT THAT???

[lpbk2713]

13. I cut the cord about a month ago.

Spectrum and Faux can go climb a rope (or a cable - whatever's handy).