So how did you enjoy your Sunday without the Packers game? Based on the outcome, most Packers fans probably enjoyed not being able to witness what was going on. I know I didn't miss it one bit--what with playoff baseball, NASCAR, regular season hockey and the Cowboys game being on CBS. How about that, hockey was on tv in Northeast Wiscosnin and Packers football wasn't. The shoe really does fell better on the other foot. The only disappointment for me was missing the season premier of Family Guy on Sunday night. But not to worry, it will be repeated endlessly in the spring or in syndication.
In fact, I may not miss Fox TV until the World Series starts in two weeks--and then I can still listen to it on ESPN radio. So after that, who really cares if Fox is on cable or not? Outside of sports and the Sunday night cartoons, what does the network have going for it? American Idol? Please, I can get bad karaoke at half the bars in Oshkosh every other night.
The real issue here is: should cable subscribers pay for something they can get for free using a pair of rabbit ears or a roof-top antenna? Lin TV--Fox 11's parent company wants some money for re-transmitting its signal over Time-Warner. Some accounts have it being a penny a person a day, others have it at three-cents per subscriber per month. Either way, it's a cost you know Time-Warner will pass along to its customers.
I'm sure you're thinking "we already pay for a bunch of garbage stations already (i.e.: the five home shopping networks, the informercial channel, EWTN), what's a few more pennies a day to get Judge Judy?" But it's really the principal of the thing. These over the air channel are free--but they now want to charge you for them. If all the ESPN channels, Fox Business News, Fox Sports Wisconsin and The Golf Channel were all free and over the air, I wouldn't even have cable.
So hold firm Time Warner, the Fox 11 blackout hasn't deprived us of anything important yet--probably won't.
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Indeed. What I wonder is, what will happen to WLUK's advertising revenues when Arbitron ratings show a sudden decline in viewership? Will they be able to charge the same rates for commercials when 150,000 fewer people see their programming? I sure wouldn't bother advertising them. In fact, if I were a current advertiser, I'd cancel on them. They haven't kept up their part of the deal; they are depriving me of 150,000 potential customers. Unless I'm missing something, THAT is going to hurt a lot more than what they want from Time-Warner.
ReplyDelete5:58. You are 100% right.
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere where Ch.11 said that 70% of their audience is still watching!! REALLY?? Do they really think that the makeup of watchers have rabbit ears or have satellite?
I think Ch.11 has it backwards. I'd be willing to bet that 70% of their audience comes from Time Warner.
So, good luck Ch.11, if you go away it's no skin off my nose, in fact, if Time Warner gave me the option of keeping Ch.11 in the lineup and keeping my rate the same or removing Ch.11 and reducing it a couple cents per month, I'd say GOODBYE Ch.11!!