More NBCU/MSNBC carriage news…
As if the Cablevision MSNBC exclusive that freezes out Verizon FiOS in New York City and parts of New Jersey wasn’t bad enough, TVNewser is keeping an eye on an ugly pattern of Comcast, in various markets around the country, taking MSNBC off its analog tier and put on its digital tier to save bandwidth. And all this happened because NBC didn’t negotiate the contract in a way that would have prevented Comcast from doing what it’s doing. As Aaron Barnhart writes…
So the question really is — why did NBC Universal leave MSNBC exposed? NBC executives typically negotiate cable carriage on behalf of affiliates, and they’re supposed to make sure the cable company carries all their channels with the most favorable placements possible. MSNBC has been relegated to the level of Sleuth and Chiller, two NBCU digital offerings that mostly act as rerun machines.
Update: An emailer offers up some interesting, albeit unsubstantiated, speculation on why Cablevision may have an exclusive for MSNBC…
I wonder if the exclusive thing they did with Cablevision was to keep cablevision from dumping them to digital only? They must have felt squeezed
I can’t wait for the Huffpo and Kos Kidz to scream that this is a Bush/Halliburton plot to silence the only voice “brave” enough to “speak truth to power”.
Comment by eddiebear — October 31, 2007 @ 5:12 pm
might be because of their low ratings. I’m sure the kool-aid drinkers will find a way to blame Bush for this.
Comment by kbass — October 31, 2007 @ 5:23 pm
Kool-aid drinkers? Uh I think you have your phrases mixed up.
Comment by Steve — October 31, 2007 @ 5:34 pm
“MSNBC has been relegated to the level of Sleuth and Chiller, two NBCU digital offerings that mostly act as rerun machines.”
Chiller & Sleuth, eh? Lets not forget about FBN which lives in a digital wonderland too.. if ya can get it!
Comment by Terance — October 31, 2007 @ 5:37 pm
Nice goin’ (AGAIN!) Zucker…
Comment by DanOregon — October 31, 2007 @ 5:41 pm
They took MSNBC off basic in Houston, which stinks because now I would have had to get a “box” from Comcast for my home office.
I went back to Direct TV anyway. Comcast raised all their prices as soon as they took over Time Warner. Cheaper and better picture!
Comment by 186 — October 31, 2007 @ 5:52 pm
This has nothing to do with Bush,
some people at NBC and or MSNBC made some deal dumb carriage deals.
How stupid is it that MSNBC can not be broadcast on Verizon FIOS in areas of NJ and NY were Cablevision also provides service.
How does it help for NBC to make a deal where MSNBC is exclusive to one cable system?
Not to mention NBC will lose money since they will not get the extra surcharge for Olympics programming on MSNBC from Verizon customers in most if the NJ and NYC area.
Comment by Richard W. — October 31, 2007 @ 6:00 pm
Not good for MSNBC. Check out Courtney Friel’s anchoring on her site. It is very interesting.
Comment by jmkaib — October 31, 2007 @ 6:02 pm
It is very, very, difficult to get analog carriage on a cable system these days. It has nothing to do with political parties. It has everything to do with Cable trying to free up the analog space for more HDTV and other services. By removing MSNBC from analog, Comcast is now able to offer 3 more HDTV channels or 12 more SDTV channels… analog uses 6Mhz of space per channel… the digital channels can share the space, much like the digital over the air TV stations like NBC can multiplex an HDTV Feed, Weather Plus, etc. The weirdest thing here is MSNBC giving up their channel location. There is no rule stating that MSNBC had to move up the dial in order to go all digital… they could have kept their channel number, and gone digital only… so something smells…
Comment by Nobody — October 31, 2007 @ 6:17 pm
Terance,
Do you watch FBN?
Comment by Cella — October 31, 2007 @ 10:42 pm
Cella, yes I watch FBN. I just think its funny how FBN shoved “mad press” all over the internet and then can’t deliver the “goods” to people who want it. With that said, I realize eventually they’ll get additional carriage after the 2009 digital switchover.
Comment by Terance — November 1, 2007 @ 7:30 am