Cable dispute causes ruffled feathers

KOMU could disappear from area televisions in dispute with Mediacom

Friday, December 31, 2010

Mediacom and KOMU-TV8 are working on last-minute negotiations today to prevent the Columbia-based NBC affiliate from being dropped from Mediacom’s channel lineup.

The current retransmission consent agreement ends at midnight tonight, which is when the signals for both KOMU and its affiliate, the CW network, could go black.

But, barring an agreement, Mediacom hopes for an extension that would give both parties more time to negotiate so that customers wouldn’t see an interruption in service, said Phyllis Peters, Mediacom’s communications director for the region. Matt Garrett, director of audience development for KOMU, said they’re focused on a three-year agreement, and that an extension had not been discussed as of Thursday evening.

As the local NBC affiliate, KOMU has exclusive rights to locally broadcast its content, which includes “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Oprah,” and its local and national news broadcasts. NFL fans would be dealt one of the first blows from a blackout. The St. Louis Rams are scheduled to play the Seattle Seahawks for the NFC West title at 7:20 p.m. Sunday on KOMU.

Negotiations that began in July, meanwhile, continue, while both sides continue to make their cases to the public.

“The failure of New York-based Mediacom to recognize the fair value that KOMU and CW bring to their cable system and subscribers has put thousands of local Mediacom subscribers at risk of losing cable access to these local stations,” KOMU wrote in a news release posted on its website Thursday evening.

Peters said KOMU has asked for “significantly more” than previously and than other area broadcast stations. “A lot of money has been put on the table, and it appears to be not enough or insufficient to meet the bar KOMU has set,” Peters said.

KOMU said it’s asking for less than 2 cents per day per Mediacom customer.

“The bottom line is that we’re just seeking a fair agreement like we have with any other cable or satellite provider in the area,” Garrett said.

Peters said if Mediacom passed along a 2-cent-per-day charge to its customers, that alone would account for about $45 of their monthly bills. That doesn’t include anything else Mediacom does to provide the service, she said.

In the current agreement, Mediacom has compensated KOMU for allowing the signal to be broadcast on its channel lineup. But that compensation has been in the form of things such as advertising money and fiber optic cable upgrades, not cash. In the new agreement, KOMU is seeking direct payment.

One published report said Mediacom serves about 30,000 households in Jefferson City and Columbia. Peters declined to specify the number, but said it was larger than that estimate.

KOMU points out that there are other options for getting its programming, including with an antenna or through other providers such as DirectTV, Dish Network or CenturyLink. Mediacom says switching providers isn’t a good solution, because all providers go through contract negotiations that could result in blackouts.

KOMU is the only university-owned commercial television station in the United States with a newsroom that doubles as a working lab for students. Its revenues are generated by advertising and retransmission revenues, not through university or state funding.

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Souperstar 2 years, 4 months ago

Good for you Mediacom! I would much rather the channel be dropped, than have higher rates trickle down to consumers. As it is, Mediacom has the fairest prices of the providers I've seen around here. I'll get my news from other channels, and the Tribune. As far as Oprah is concerned, good riddance.

jeffcitygirl 2 years, 4 months ago

You can't be serious! Their rates and extra fees are outrageous! Mediacom is one of the worst cable providers as far as On Demand content, nothing like AT&T u-verse or that new one from Century Link. Dropping Channel 8 will do a HUGE disservice to the local community in the access of weather and news no longer available. I love NBC shows..where will we watch them now? And I don't get this statement: Peters said if Mediacom passed along a 2-cent-per-day charge to its customers, that alone would account for about $45 of their monthly bills. What kind of math is THAT? .02 * 30 = 60 freaking cents. Huh??

jeffcitygirl 2 years, 4 months ago

Plus you can't just switch providers when you feel like it, Mediacom requires a 2 year contract when you sign up now.

Souperstar 2 years, 4 months ago

You're not taking into account their high-speed internet or VoIP phone service. Their high-speed is faster. I need that. Their VoIP is $30 per month for unlimited calling to North America, try THAT with CenturyLink. That saves me bunches! And, AT&T u-verse is not offered here. I've checked several times this year. You can't compare to them... And, I've had satellite TV and internet, horrible experiences with both. You need the weather? Check online! Tune into AM, FM! Please don't forget you can still get this station over the air for free. You want me to pay for it?

Also, Mediacom's on demand is fine with me. It's instant, unlike some other providers. I use Netflix for on-demand content. Also, the only show that NBC carries that I'm interested in is the office, which Mediacom delivers on-demand for free, in HD.

online_editor 2 years, 4 months ago

First of all, thank you Souper, for touting us as an available local news source. Second, the following comment is not meant as an endorsement because each service has its pluses and minuses, but I wanted to clarify the point about phone service merely to help people comparison shop... I'm getting the same type of unlimited calling from CenturyLink for a flat monthly rate at my house, as part of a bundled TV-Internet-phone package. In other words, long distance without any additional metered charge is not exclusive to Mediacom's bundled packages anymore. Meanwhile, depending on the price/plan one chooses, it's true that the most common Internet service is generally listed at a higher bandwidth from Mediacom than CenturyLink, but there are real world variables that can make that less significant in practice than it might seem on paper. The bottleneck at my house happens to be the one I willingly create by relying heavily on WiFi. Naturally, your mileage may vary depending on how you drive, so to speak. Like I said, that's not an endorsement, just a comment that some people may be happy with an apple, some with an orange.

jeffcitygirl 2 years, 4 months ago

Well I don't have an HD TV so I can't get the on demand network shows, I guess that's what bothers me. I want to watch network shows and things on deman but I can't. And $30 a month for the high speed? Why are they charging me $45?

jeffcitygirl 2 years, 4 months ago

And you can't get any station "over the air" without having to purchase a converter box..is the government still giving away vouchers for those?

3blindmice 2 years, 4 months ago

cable tv, what's that? you can watch everthing you want to watch, including many stations not carried locally, online these days and much of that can be done from your 4G device

online_editor 2 years, 4 months ago

I am curious of those of you using Internet via Hulu, Boxee, Roku, etc., or a smart phone to access long-form video on a routine basis. How much of a problem is the dreaded spinning circle of buffering for you? I've often wondered if those devices and the normal path of Internet distribution will become inadequate at some point if and when a large majority of people across the grid start using the Internet exclusively for TV, or when three or four people in the same household want to watch different video streams simultaneously, and therefore, start drawing a higher proportion of the shared bandwidth. Just wondered what your personal experience was at this stage.

melbrooks 2 years, 4 months ago

I currently use DirecTV, but will drop it for Hulu Plus when my contract is up. I'd like to try CenturyLink's Prism, but it's only available in limited service areas. I just got a new HDTV at Christmas which has Netflix built in--we stream movies with it for $8/month. The max I can get via CenturyLink is 3 Mbps internet service. So far, it hasn't been a problem, but we're only streaming one movie and doing web browsing at the same time.

As an aside, a few months ago I purchased what I think will be my last mobile phone on contract as well. By the time my next phone will be up for an upgrade (nearly a year from now), I anticipate we will begin moving toward a pay-as-you go system and save over $100/month.

JCLifer 2 years, 4 months ago

Why do I have to give Mediacom money for packages that have 50 channels I never watch just to get a few that I want?

Greedy Mediacom can go to heck as far as I am concerned. By refusing to carry the local channels, what good are they?

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