Despite Cable-Costs Crackdown, New Channels Keep Coming
Posted in: Uncategorized
Players ranging from WWE to ABC News and Univision will again try to elbow their way onto pay-TV program guides this year. But 2013 may prove particularly inhospitable for upstart networks as cable and satellite distributors get serious about mitigating rising content costs.
Time Warner Cable just dropped the arts channel Ovation, arguing that fewer than 1% of its subscribers tune in on any given day — not enough to justify the $10 million in carriage fees it says it has paid over the past several years. Ovation isn’t even an arts channel any more, Time Warner Cable says, contending that 70% of its schedule is now turned over to old movies, repeats of “Antiques Road Show” and direct-response product pitches.
Cable operators say they are open to talks about carrying new networks — Time Warner Cable added NFL Network, BBC World News and Aspire, among others, last year — but those conversations are becoming more difficult.
Post a Comment