DirecTV Wants Fox To Stop Running Ads About Potential Station Drops

multichannel.com ^ | 10/27/2011 | John Eggerton

[Las Vegas Dave]

DirecTV has sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission complaining about Fox advertising related to their cable programming dispute.

In the missive to Media Bureau chief Bill Lake, the top satellite operator said that Fox is using misleading advertising informing DirecTV customers that " 'soon, in some markets, you may lose your local Fox station,' even though our retransmission-consent agreement does not expire for over two months."

The parties are currently engaged in a battle over the programmer seeking an increase in license fees for FX, National Geographic Channel, Speed, Fuel TV, Fox Soccer, Fox Soccer Plus, Fox Movie Channel, Fox Deportes and the 19 Fox regional sports networks.

Fox Cable Networks' agreement with the DBS giant expires Nov. 1, but their retrans deal for Fox-owned stations does not expire until year-end, DirecTV pointed out in the missive to Lake.

The provider added that Fox has also "refused to provide us a separate offer for the continued carriage of its broadcast stations."

DirecTV says it has asked Fox to stop running the ads, but that the programmer has not done so.

Fox was unavailable for comment at press time.

The FCC is currently considering clarifying the definition of good faith retrans negotiations. DirecTV told Lake that is purposely trying to confuse and alarm consumers, and suggests that would not be in the definition of good faith bargaining.

"Such conduct is certainly not what the Commission had in mind when it made Fox a steward of the nation's airwaves entrusted to serve the public interest," said DirecTV executive vice president of content strategy and development Derek Chang in the letter, which was dated Oct. 27.

[Las Vegas Dave]

And from TVPredictions.com: http://www.tvpredictions.com/fcc102811.htm

DIRECTV to FCC: Fox Is Misleading! Washington, D.C. (October 28, 2011) -- DIRECTV has taken its programming dispute with Fox to the Federal Communications Commission, filing a complaint saying that Fox is "misleading" their subscribers into believing they will lose their local Fox channels.

DIRECTV says Fox is asking for a 40 percent increase to carry roughly two dozen Fox channels including FX, Fox Movie Channel and 19 regional sports networks -- but not the local Fox channels or Fox News; they are covered in a different agreement.

Fox denies the 40 percent rate increase, but the two companies acknowledge that unless a deal is agreed to by November 1, it's highly likely the two dozen Fox channels will be removed from DIRECTV's airwaves.

However, the fee fight has gotten heated in the past few days after Fox began running commercials suggesting that DIRECTV could soon lose the local Fox channels as well as the cable networks.

“FOX is using misleading advertising informing DIRECTV customers that soon, in some markets, you may lose your local FOX station, even though our retransmission consent agreement (For the local channels) does not expire for over two months,” said the DIRECTV letter, which was written by DIRECTV executive vice president Derek Chang.

Chang added that Fox has refused to give DIRECTV a separate proposal to renew the carriage agreement for the local channels.

"Fox is clearly abusing the public trust by its deliberate attempt to confuse and alarm consumers. Such conduct is certainly not what the Commission had in mind when it made Fox a steward of the nation’s airwaves entrusted to serve the public interest," Chang wrote.

DIRECTV apparently wants the FCC to order Fox to stop running the ads, particularly in reference to the local channel language; the letter stops short of actually requesting that action. However, the fact that DIRECTV has sent the letter just four days before the Nov. 1 deadline might suggest the satcaster doesn't think this dispute will end soon.

There was no response last night from Fox or the FCC on DIRECTV's letter.

[Las Vegas Dave]

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[Leroy S. Mort]

At my age, two months = “soon”.

[Gaffer]

I think this will backfire on both parties. I will not pay MORE to watch anything Fox-related, and I will not keep DirectV if the drop these channels and do not reduce my bill. It is that simple.

I am tired of being nickel and dimed to death as the last fallback on societies ills. My DirectV bill is $142 now (risen incrementally from the $99 package I got years ago. All the premium extra channels are just reruns of bad movies, putrid crap like Bill Maher, Babs, Gore, hagged out liberal starts, and that shithead Michael Moore.

I'll just go with local cable, network and phone bundle and Netflix plus the new BRDs that I really want to see.

[Come to think of it, there's a lot of other needless crap I pay for each month. When I retire in December I'm gonna slim those bills: ADT (won't need it), TRUGREE/CHEMLAWN, my extra iPhone account, cut the mileage on my car/truck for insurance (35K/year), caller ID/home wiring service/etc....probably a bunch of other stuff too.] I'm done doing my part to keep the economy up for a nation half full of leech losers.

[elli1]

DIRECTV says Fox is asking for a 40 percent increase...

Fox denies the 40 percent rate increase...

So, either somebody is outright lying OR something Clintonian is going on, like maybe Fox is asking for 'only' a 39.995% increase...

[mazda77]

I’m with Beck on this one. He left and I will be doing so soon as well. I purchased the Roku device and like it well enough to find other sources to receive the programming I choose to watch. I am tired of scrolling down the long list of crap TV in the hopes of finding anything useful.

As I am involved with racing in a big way, I really want to retain Speed but will give it up. I’ll need to find subscriptions for the stuff I want to watch including SEC and college football on ESPN.

[GAB-1955]

One set of parasites complaining about another.

[Tripleplay]

What is the Roku device?

[DJ MacWoW]

What Would You Do Without FR?

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Where Else Can You Discuss Conservative Issues And Laugh Too?

[WackySam]

http://www.roku.com/roku-products

[God luvs America]

well this is good to know- there’s a ticker running across the bottom of SpeedTV right now and i was afraid i was going to miss the college football games on Fox next Saturday never mind the last two F1 races of the year...

[mazda77]

I virtually stopped watching F1 when it became the pole car wins the race show. Some neat stuff to see but actual racing was hard to find unless one liked the follow the leader deal.

[Junior_G]

I can’t stand DirectTV, but Fox seems like the sleazier party in this dispute.

[Gabz]

Has DIRECT-TV complained to the FCC about similar ads that have been run by local NBC and ABC affiliates? I bet the answer to that is a resounding NO.

[SuzyQue]

How much can you watch on Roku? It looks interesting, but I wasn’t clear that you could get much beyond GBTV.

Can you stream straight from the internet on it and watch anything you can now watch on your computer? Or do you pay a monthly fee in addition?

[SuzyQue]

“Has DIRECT-TV complained to the FCC about similar ads that have been run by local NBC and ABC affiliates?”

That’s interesting.

[mazda77]

I got it just to watch Beck but there are over 100 channels with most of them free that can be added to the lineup. Not really sold on it for a broad based solution but it offers more than the WD TV Live thingy.

I actually bought the WD TV to playback the in-car videos for some of the racing teams I do data work for so they didn’t hog up my computer keeping me away from doing the data analysis. I can connect it to the TV and surf the net with wireless keyboards and such, which I am still trying to find out of it can be done with Roku.

I am still looking for a better solution but like when DTV first came out, it had its growing pains as well. I think the move is on the specific subscription services on-line rather than the one size fits all solution DTV is mire in.

[God luvs America]

they added a moveable back wing and there’s been record numbers of passes this season...

[reformedliberal]

We dropped DirecTV last June. We now have a Roku II, Netflix and GBTV (month-to-month). We went from $70/month with no premiums (dropped those years ago) to around $25/month. We keep the 1 DVD at a time just because not everything we like is streamed. Roku carries podcasts/vodcasts and other excerpts from many network news channels and keeps adding various channels every month.

We don’t miss it. I don’t even go to the FNC website very often. Between Drudge and FR and a few right wing blog sites, we get all the news and information we can handle. I used to have FNC or Fox Business on all the time in the background.

[mazda77]

The legend of Jim Hall’s Chapparell lives on! I know it is not anything close technically but you know what I am talking about. Maybe next year. I am up to my ears with a new car to get ready for the off season testing to get ready for the 50th Rolex 24.