As the retrans fee dispute between WSVN and DirecTV reaches the 11th hour, and the station being unable to get what they feel is a fair market value, starting last night a one minute and 40 seconds story on the dispute started to air warning viewers that more than 270,000 people (DirecTV customers?) in South Florida could miss this weekend’s NFL game, 7News and American Idol and encouraging them to call DirecTV to “voice their concerns”.
They also showed a statement from DirecTV in which the satellite operator says they have no problem compensating Sunbeam fairly for WSVN but were told if there is no agreement the station will be removed from DirecTV’s channel lineup.
I wonder if the “fair market value” demand has something to do with FOX’s requirements affiliates pay them a minimum fee for each cable/satellite subscriber, and if Sunbeam/WSVN are trying to avoid digging into their pockets to pay FOX’s high fees!
Check out the video after the jump
Sunbeam wanting 300% is insane and for this channel to be removed especially the day of playoff games in my opinion is blackmail. People are struggling enough is this day and age, if Direct TV agrees to 300% increase. Who the heck do you think is going to have to pay the price. We the people. I hope Roger Goodell pulls NFL from their network because to be quite frank, I am so mad, I don’t give a damn (as much as I like some of the shows on channel 7), if it’s removed for good. Sunbeam is wrong to remove the channel while negotiations are going on. This is plain wrong. I’m sure millions of people feel the same way I do at this point.
Sincerely,
Cheryl
Screw that. I want Lynn Martinez’s cell #!
The news release says the decision to pull the NBC channels came from the Sunbeam corp. , not Direct TV
I too, am totally disgusted with the Sunbeam corp.