Last night, while watching American Gladiators, I saw the NBC 24 plea to contact Buckeye about the retransmission agreement. Well, thanks to Glass City Jungle, I read that they had a press conference today. NBC 24 has a story on it on their Web site at:
http://www.nbc24.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=166040
What happens if the deadline is missed?
How much does Buckeye pay to retransmit Al Jazeera programming?
NBC 24 seems to be using the Big Ten network strategy of getting users to call, but are there enough passionate viewers to actually call?
Could this agreement, or lack of one, be a reason for the very visible personnel changes that have occurred recently?
The station or network is demanding 8 times the going rate to retransmit their broadcast. Just in time for the Olympics.
Greed....gotta love it.
Where did you hear that they want 8 times the going rate? Currently according to their website:
NBC24 currently receives no direct compensation from Buckeye for our signal. We seek fair value, but only a small fraction of what Buckeye currently pays to other programs services on its systems.
They then go on to list what some of the others are getting.
NBC24 isn't ESPN...How much are the other local states compensated?
I find it funny that they didn't compare themselves to thoughs...
Buckeye could get NBC programming from another source (like Detroit) so it would just be the local stuff that would be missed.
WNWO has four channels on Buckeye: NBC24, NBC24 digital, RTN and a continuous weather station. You can also get WNWO news via VOD.
I would miss RTN, it's like TVLand and there are some fun old shows running on that channel.
There are multiple ESPN channels (8 maybe?) and I think that the fee listed in the article is for all of them so, IMO, it really isn't unreasonable.
In his Toledo Media Vlog, Jim Blue suggests that Buckeye can broadcast NBC programming from Detroit but in the Blade it says this:
Because of federal regulations, Buckeye would not be allowed to broadcast NBC network programming from the Detroit affiliate, WDIV, Channel 4.
So depending on which source is right, I may have been mistaken regarding getting NBC programming from elsewhere.
Sources:
http://jimbluesblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/hi-im-jim-blue.html
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080730/ART18/8073003...
I've been told that Buckeye had to agree with WNWO to not air (duplicate) network programming from WDIV due to advertisers' wishes for local target audiences during NBC network broadcasts. This is not uncommon.