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February 2003 Issue

EDITOR'S LETTER

REX PORTER

Paying the Piper for the Pipe

I continue to read press releases about programmers increasing their rates. And I keep noticing cable operator reaction to such rate hikes. Seems like the operators are taking a stand at keeping the increases to a minimum.

Why should there be rates at all, much less rate hikes? Aren't these ops paying attention to their programs?

I remember the launch of satellite programming in the '70s. Cable subs received commercial-free content with HBO and Showtime. Then other programmers jumped on the bandwagon and provided added viewing pleasure for a few pennies per sub.

Now, I notice advertising on channels that never before interrupted their programming. I was watching one of the teen-music video channels and counted nine commercials before returning to the program. I switched over to two other satellite-fed services and found they were running national advertising in the middle of movies. These weren't local "Andy's Auto Mart" commercials. They were Madison Avenue spots on everything from hair spray to General Motor's products. I doubt that the small army of cable TV marketers are getting these spots for programmers. I really am disgusted that American Movie Classics now interrupts their movies with commercials--as if they were nothing but a local broadcaster.

If nonbroadcast programmers are going to use the HFC net to make fortunes with advertising, why should the operator pay them anything? Seems to me that the programmer should be paying the operator for advertising time. I never have seen a commercial on HBO or Showtime other than spot promotions on their own programs. And I think this is what we had in mind when we signed on to provide outlets for today's multitude of programmers. But I don't think we intended they should compete with the broadcasters for commercials and then charge us for carriage to customers.

There used to be FCC regs over how many commercials could run consecutively before the station returned to its regularly scheduled program. I don't know if the FCC ever set such rules in place for satellite-fed programming. If not, perhaps some rules might be necessary to protect the sanity of our bread-and-butter: Our cable subscribers.

Can you imagine the aggravation a flood of commercials will add to the claim by subs, that there are hundreds of channels and nothing worth watching? Only, to have rates increase?

Hell-oh???

CT

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