It Could Be Us

Its New York City. And Fox and the local cable company are arguing over who gets how much money. All those NY and Philadelphia baseball fans can't watch the NLCS, because Fox pulled their channels from the cable company in the dispute.

So what. Its New York City.

It could be us.

Remember in June when Cablevision and Bresnan made their big announcement. The one where Cablevision was acquiring Bresnan's assets (that's you) for $1.36 Billion dollars. The cable company in the fight with Fox?

Cablevision.

Here's the simplified argument. Cable companies pay content providers money to carry their signals. Cable companies like Cablevision/Bresnan want to pay the least they can. Providers, like Fox, want the most. Since there is no constitutional right to cable TV, at least not yet, content providers can remove their content from distribution to cable. That's what's happened here.

If Cablevision owned Bresnan now, there's a possibility you wouldn't be able to watch the NLCS either. This argument over fees is going to happen more and more in the future and in two different places.

One, your cell phone provider. Verizon is already on record against Net Neutrality. Meaning, they want to be able to control the data served to your phone. If say, Google, paid them more, you'll get Google results first ahead of Yahoo or any other service. Second, your internet service provider--either Bresnan or Qwest for the most part here. Same issue. Let's say one of the ISP's were collecting a check from a web site who's point of view wasn't the same as yours.

That web site would get "fast lane" service, and get to your machine faster and at the top of the search lists. And you'd never know why.

Who Pays?

Who pays the increased fees for any of this? You already know the answer.

Radio is free. Just the way I like it. No fancy equipment, smart phones, iTunes accounts, or web browsers. Hit a button in my car or the power at my desk--Boom! Real Country Variety, just the way I like it.