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Showing posts with label cable bills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cable bills. Show all posts

HEADLINES: Netflix wants to be a competitor, bundles aren't going anywhere

9:32 AM | Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

TCA: Netflix looks to join TV big leagues
It may be anything but a normal TV network, but Netflix wants to be taken seriously in the way that a network is - to the point of bringing out its own new programming, which it showed off at the TCA winter press tour on Wednesday. [Variety]

Cable and Satellite Bundles Here to Stay
Despite backlash from customers because of rising costs, cable and satellite bundles will more than likely stay exactly the way they are.  “People know what they don’t want," says a Verizon executive. "They don’t necessarily know what they do.” [TVNewsCheck]

WRTV promotes from within to find news director
Slowly but surely, Indianapolis' rare situation of three news director vacancies is being filled.  The latest of the new hires is Terri Cope-Walton, who has been named WRTV's newsroom boss.  Cope-Walton has been with the station since 1998. [ScrippsNewsOnline]

Britney Spears Quits X Factor to Avoid Being Fired
Sensing that she was about to get the ax, Britney Spears has reportedly fallen on her sword at Fox's The X Factor.  Reportedly, the show's producers felt she didn't meet the rather lofty expectations that came along with her $15 million contract. [TVGuide]

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Report: Sports is a big reason why cable is so expensive

10:37 AM | Labels: , , , , ,

Completely unsurprising new report says "about half" of your cable bill pays for sports, whether you watch them or not

How's that cable bill looking lately?  Satellite?

It's getting pretty expensive, huh?

Well, according to a report by Bob Menendez in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer, that's not likely to ease off anytime soon.

And, given the fact that Time Warner Cable recently began carrying NFL Network (at long last), the NFL has a new and ultra-expensive TV deal, and so does Major League Baseball, you can see why things have gotten more expensive and will continue to do so.

And that doesn't even include college sports, which have turned into a gold mine all on their own.

Menendez reports that sports fees now make up "about half" of the average American cable or satellite bill.

In less than two years, the major networks (broadcast AND cable) have forked over, he writes, some $72 BILLION to carry sporting events and other coverage.  That's being passed on to you, the consumer.

"You think sooner or later we will hit a saturation point, but I'm starting to think there is no saturation point," Syracuse University professor of television and popular culture told Menendez. "People will pay for sports in their cable bill, and they will pay extra for sports."

And they're going to, if the latest projections are accurate.  Back in April, I told you that the average cable bill, which stood at $86 a month at that point, will rise to more than $200 a month by 2020.  At that point, I explained that retransmission fees will be a large factor in the coming increase.  That's still true, but with the new costs of sports coverage being passed on too, who knows where the end might be?

We may never know.

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