Time Warner CEO: Retrans Fees Part of Subscription Model

Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner CEO, cites support of retransmission fee structure as part of a content subscription model that works for Time Warner's broadcast and cable programming divisions. While the view of now separate Time Warner Cable may be somewhat different, Bewkes has been an early and strong proponent of the "TV Everywhere" online subscription model and sees retrans fees as supporting the broadcast business model and sustaining a distribution platform for the content Time Warner produces.

Web-To-TV

The blur of platform boundaries is likely to increase. The linked article offers a hint of what is to come. TV everywhere, under any promotional name, will indeed become just that...access to content over familiar and emerging screens and interfaces.

The ramp-up of new technology adoption occurs at ever increasing pace and angular momentum. Content's kingdom will dwarf any created by the blood and boot of political and military history.

Cable Industry Backing Must-Carry Challenge

The NCTA, and major programmers like discovery, are supporting Cablevision's court challenge of the must-carry rules.

Given the major technology and marketplaces changes that have occurred since must-carry was narrowly upheld in the Turner case, the arguments for eliminating must-carry appear stronger than they've ever been.

Especially when retrans consent has become the pathway of choice for broadcast carriage on cable, the mandated carriage of broadcast channels in a time of digital telecast, increasing availability of content from wired, wireless and online content providers (including major broadcast networks), the policy and legal justification for must-carry no longer holds.

Traditional broadcast economics are under attack and strain from new media and not from any assumed bottleneck of cable carriage decisions. The First Amendment and diversity of content distribution will both be better served by eliminating must-carry.