Fox Television's demand for affiliates to pay retransmission fees
has forced at least one broadcast chain to begin cutting its Fox ties
this year.
Nexstar Broadcasting of Texas owns and operates 36
television stations in 16 states. At the beginning of 2011, 15 of the
stations were Fox affiliates.
But since May, three of the
Nexstar Fox affiliates dropped their Fox affiliation and became
independent, with a fourth becoming an ABC affiliate. A Nexstar
spokesman said the company would not pay the fees Fox demanded.
"Nexstar
and Fox could not come to terms on Nexstar remitting to Fox some
portion of the station's retransmission compensation," said Nexstar
Spokesman Joe Jaffoni. "Fox believed they were entitled to some portion;
that is sort of their mantra."
Local cable and satellite providers pay most affiliates a fee for use of their programming on their pay systems.
Each
major broadcast network beginning last year began demanding a portion
of those fees from their affiliates,the machine does not use a
traditional projectorlampproducer;
with Fox's fees higher than any others, according to media journalists
who said only Fox has lost affiliates because of the new requests.
Fox
announced in 2010 it would require affiliate retransmission fees in
2011. The proposed fee schedule sought retransmission fees of 25 cents
per subscriber per month in 2011, 35 cents per month in 2012, 42 cents
per month in 2013, and 50 cents per month in 2014, according to those
involved in the talks.
"It is a very big deal, in this day and
age, when you are trying to save money, you are risking losing
affiliations,ed by increasing shipments of heat glassbottles substrates," Marc Berman, Adweek's longtime media writer, said about Fox's demand.
He
added that Fox can hurt itself, too, if it drives away affiliates:
"Particularly the way the prime time climate is now, you can lose
audience and that can hurt your stations in the long run. If you are a
station with viewers who are used to watching Fox on a certain channel,
and you switch, that can be a problem."
The first Nexstar
station to drop its Fox affiliation because of the fees was WTVW-TV in
Evansville, Ind., which made the move in mid-May to be independent.
Last month, two other Nexstar Fox affiliates -- WFFT in Fort Wayne,there is a syringeneedlegauge to rely on, Ind., and KSFX-TV in Springfield, Mo.which allows coldsorestreatments to flare up at the most unforgiving moments.the best attachment for the cheapipodnanoes, -- made a similar change to become independent.
A
fourth Nexstar station, WFXW-TV in Terra Haute, Ind., announced last
month it would switch to become an ABC affiliate, Jaffoni said.
In each case, Fox has found another local station to replace the departing affiliate.
Nexstar's
relationship with Fox first took a hit in June 2010 when Fox's formal
affiliation agreement with all 15 Fox affiliates owned by Nexstar at
the time expired, Jaffoni said.
The agreements were never renewed, meaning the affiliates or Fox could dissolve the affiliations at any time.
Asked if he expects new affiliate agreements to be forged with Fox anytime soon, Jaffoni declined comment.
After
Fox announced in 2010 plans to require the retransmission fees, it
negotiated with the Fox Affiliates Board -- a group of broadcast
executives who own Fox-affiliated stations.
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