CBS Claims It Will Pull All Content Offline Unless It Can Be An Anti-Competitive Ass

Say That Again

from the baby-talk dept

Contract disputes between cable companies and broadcasters have gotten increasingly ugly as programmers demand more and more money for the same content. These retransmission fee fights often result in consumers not only losing access to content they’re paying for, but it places the consumer in the position of PR pinata, as each side tries to get consumers annoyed at the other guy. After a few months of bickering, on-screen tickers and blacked out content, the two sides usually agree to a new confidential contract, which then winds its way to the end consumer in the form of yet another cable bill rate hike.

But there’s been another troubling aspect to these fights that almost stumbles into net neutrality territory.

Back during a 2010 contract debate between News Corporation and Cablevision, News Corp. took the unprecedented step of blocking all Cablevision broadband customers from accessing Fox content online, whether they subscribe to TV or not. Viacom did the same thing last year when it blocked all CableONE broadband customers (via an IP range block) from accessing Viacom content online. In other words, broadband customers who may even be paying for TV through another provider (like satellite), still found themselves caught in the crossfire, unable to access publicly-available content online.

It’s a muddy practice that stumbles somewhere between a net neutrality violation and vanilla jackassery. And it’s one of several problems the FCC is trying to resolve after Congress directed the agency to put an end to these shenanigans and re-examine what constitutes “good faith” negotiations after the industry failed to self regulate. As the FCC ponders action, CBS apparently thought it would be a good idea to start throwing threats around. In a recent filing with the FCC (pdf), CBS basically states that should the FCC ban this behavior (which CBS has also engaged in), the broadcaster will take its ball and go home:

“Local broadcast stations have a duty to transmit programming for free, over-the-air. They have no obligation to make any of that programming or any other content available online. The fact that many stations choose to do so for free as a routine business practice is in stark contrast to other content providers, including online newspapers and other media providers such as Netflix and Amazon that place their content behind paywalls.”

CBS of course made a similar threat during the Aereo trial, stating they’d be pulling all broadcast television off the air if the company didn’t get what it wanted (in that case, Aereo dead, in this case, a spineless FCC). From there though the threat gets clearer. Stop us from obnoxiously punishing paying customers for our own inability to get deals done in a civil fashion, CBS warns, or the future of television will die!:

“Prohibiting a broadcaster from limiting access to customers of an MVPD [multichannel video programming distributor] with which it is having a dispute in order to protect its negotiating position would be a strong disincentive for stations to make their content available online as a general practice.”

In other words, nobody will put content online if the FCC prohibits companies from engaging in asinine behavior that hurts paying customers. But CBS apparently didn’t get the memo that they no longer have the power they used to. In the new internet video era there’s a little something called competition. No longer can CBS sit on its legacy throne, engaging in anti-competitive behavior, flinging threats and pouting without repercussion. With streaming services like Netflix, HBO, and Amazon all vying for consumer attention via original programming, a broadcaster pulling its content offline is a one-way ticket to irrelevance.

Filed Under: fcc, internet, network television, retransmission fights, tv
Companies: cbs