Sunday, January 3, 2010

Will Free TV be A Thing of the Past

Fierce negotiations between Time Warner Cable and Fox owner News Corp., along with the recent purchase of NBC Universal by Comcast Corp., are underscoring changes in television. And the notion of free, over-the-air broadcasting might be unraveling.

That could mean higher cable- or satellite-TV bills.

Although the story is current, its roots go back more than 60 years, when TV stations began airing news, sports and entertainment free and made their money by showing commercials.

All went well for decades, until cable TV and the Web began fracturing the audience for free TV and siphoning away its ad dollars. The current recession has squeezed advertising further, forcing broadcasters to accelerate their push for new revenue to pay for programming.

And pay they must, because "Good programming is expensive," said Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns Fox, at a shareholders meeting in the fall. "It can no longer be supported solely by advertising revenues."

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2009/12/31/free_broadcast.ART_ART_12-31-09_A1_0CG5J4F.html?sid=101

1 comment:

  1. jim timmermanJanuary 4, 2010 at 3:24 PM

    As long as the government gives stations free use of over the air broadcast frequencies, yes those frequencies will be free to access.

    I was told when I bought a HD set that I would need a special Digitial antenna. I must tell you that I am using an old set of rabbit ears and picking up more than 20 Digitial local stations. All for free.

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