Broadcast fee lawsuit

CommunityMember · 2025-06-06T03:05:22+00:00

“Louisville man files class action lawsuit against Spectrum claiming unfair billing practices” (in regards to the Broadcast Fee). https://www.wdrb.com/news/business/louisville-man-files-class-action-lawsuit-against-spectrum-claiming-unfair-billing-practices/article_08cd33ef-36f6-44f5-bd7d-b44f516a9342.html The claim suggests that a one size (fee) fits all across all locations likely means some people are paying too much (and perhaps some too little), and in Louisville, they are paying too much. The most interesting possibility is that during discovery Charter will need to show their work (contracts) with the local stations to justify the broadcast fee (they will, of course, request filing under seal, but that does not mean the judge will agree).

Motorola870

CommunityMember quite frankly I would do away with Retransmission consent or overhaul it. Why should cable, Virtual provider, or satellite have to bear a cost to pay for transmitting what is free over the air at this point either end the outrageous costs or force the OTA networks to return the spectrum and go subscription based IPTV or through other providers as they are charging for access to spectrum that they are given as a license that the government owns.

cypherstream

Motorola870 I agree but they already deemed it illegal to receive free over the air TV and rebroadcast it. Remember there were a few services like Locast and Aereo.

If someone could monitize oxygen and charge us to breathe , they would. Oh maybe that’s taxes.

cypherstream

CommunityMember I can understand this viewpoint.

They sure are getting a lot of money per customer. IF a broadcast fee is $28/m, how much goes to ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, independants. I’d imagine PBS gets none of it?

If you have 50,000 customers times $28… that’s a pretty lucrative addition to the advertising dollars earned. Can you see now why they want to encrypt and protect ATSC 3.0 with DRM?

Not_Sure

cypherstream Charter got rid of the separate broadcast fee last year.

CommunityMember

Not_Sure Charter got rid of the separate broadcast fee last year.

They just included it in to the all-in fee for new plans as required under recent FTC rules. But the fee is still there, just “included” (except for legacy plans, which still have it itemized separately). In any case, there is no doubt that the “broadcast fee” is about paying the local stations for carriage (re-transmission consent), and there is no doubt that different markets have different payments to the local stations (different number of locals, different contracts) So, the lawsuit has at least the possibility of merit of a location being overcharged (there is also no disagreement that the re-transmission consent fee is valid; we are talking about the number). Such a lawsuit will take years to resolve.

CommunityMember

cypherstream hey sure are getting a lot of money per customer. IF a broadcast fee is $28/m, how much goes to ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, independants. I’d imagine PBS gets none of it?

PBS affiliated stations, as a non-commercial broadcaster, do not participate in re-transmission consent, but use must-carry. Of course, should the administration succeed in end funding for local stations, some local stations may end up needing to choose to consider exercising their re-transmission consent option to make up for some of the shortfall in funding in order to continue be able to broadcast. Interesting times ahead for PBS stations.

CommunityMember

cypherstream I agree but they already deemed it illegal to receive free over the air TV and rebroadcast it. Remember there were a few services like Locast and Aereo.

Copyright. Local stations may have the exclusive copyrights in their local DMA to decide how their material is used, and that includes network content they license for broadcast in the local DMA for at least live broadcasts.

Given that all the major networks offer their content over their various streaming services (next day), and most people are moving away from watching network content live (except for event tv (breaking news and live sports)), local stations are losing a core funding model.

Not_Sure

CommunityMember Peacock offers the locals NBC live, paramount + offers the local live, Soon Fox will be offering the local live on their streaming services. How they get from the network owners I’m not sure but am sure it’s less than they get from re-trans fees. Of course many people are rediscovering OTA if they can get it. So the local are shooting themselves in teh foot by insisting on high re-trans fees and pricing people to go A) OTA B) streaming services, C) no longer watching locals at all. I’;s getting harder and harder to get anyone under 50 to pay for cable now. The older demographic is dying off more and more each day and once they either die or cut the cord they aren’t coming back. Imagine if the broadcast fee was $20 less and Charter could reduce pricing by $20. They could offer a basic tv package for $20 instead of $40. That might stop the bleeding. I’m 56 I should be the broadcast networks typical viewer now but I haven’t regularly watched broadcast TV in 15 years. And I sure as hell aint going to start now at $120 a month or even $40 for just locals. My son just turned 30 he’s been mostly on his own since he’s 18 and he’s never had cable. He will never pay for cable. He’s not a-typical either.

10 years ago Charter and Comcast has nearly 40 million TV subs( and this was before Charter bought TWC and BH ) Now combined they have 24 mil. Comcast had 22.5 mil in 2014 all by itself. By he end of 2025 Comcast will have lost HALF its TV subs in 11 years. Of course Dish and DirecTV have loss massive subs too. And YouTubeTV, Fubo, Hulu Live etc do not make up for those losses. Just a small fraction. Locals would be wise to change course before it’s too late. Eventually the broadcasters are going to see they don’t even need the locals anymore aside from the stations they own. How are those locals going to survive without affiliation with a major broadcaster? Show re-runs of Sanford and Son?

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