With local TV stations enduring a huge drop in revenue, their parent companies are battling to grow new revenue in the form of retransmission agreements with cable companies. Fox is pushing for a big increase from Time Warner, and the negotiations are going down to the wire — the deal is up at the end of the year, and without a renewal, Fox is threatening to pull its stations off Time Warner Cable.
“If we are not successful, this business will be in peril,” says Tony Vinciquerra, chairman of Fox Networks Group. His boss agrees. “Good programming is expensive,” said Rupert Murdoch, explaining why it’s important for Fox to push hard for more compensation. “It can no longer be supported solely by advertising revenues.” Murdoch said the negotiations are no less than “creating an economic template for the future” for local television.
In the meantime, Time Warner Cable is running ads and launched a website, RollOverorGetTough.com, which explains to their subscribers how they can watch Fox programming on Hulu or Fox.com. Stay tuned…