Every time I hear about a contract dispute between a cable/satellite company such as Comcast or Dish and a local ABC or FOX affiliate, I can’t help but wonder why there is even some large fee being paid to the station to essentially rebroadcast a signal that is being transmitted over the air and can be viewed for free. Why are the stations and their parent companies counting on cable companies to front their bills when in the past, there were no cable companies because over the air was the only option?
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For most cable customers, access to local affiliates is a deal breaker. Can’t get local news and sports, can’t get prime time shows, people will jump to competitor who does offer access to those. People don’t want the complexity of installing an aerial, switching between inputs to jump between HGTV and NBC
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