Yesterday I learned (via Angelo Carusone on Twitter) that Fox News is in the midst of renegotiating its contracts with Xfinity (Comcast), Charter/Spectrum and Cox, three of the biggest cable carriers in the U.S.
Fox News doesn't need to carry any ads at all to make its money because it extracts so much money from these cable companies. Only ESPN gets more. Those My Pillow ads are just pocket change.
This is happening at a time when the cable companies are in an economic downturn, facing loss of subscribers as people "cut the cord." They don't want to pay Fox News any more than they have to. And here we have Fox in the middle of a terrible PR moment, as the Dominion defamation case against the network goes to trial this week.
According to Carusone, the Murdochs have been promising Fox shareholders that the negotiation will result in not just a renewal of the contract terms, but a big increase for Fox, allowing the network to make up for the ad losses it has faced from all of its bad practices.
Carusone writes:
There are about 90 million cable customers in this country. There are about 3 million regular Fox News viewers. Fox is not only forcing everyone with cable to overpay, but now they will try to pick Americans' pockets even more.
That means this is a unique time when many of us can do something that will have a real effect on Fox News.
If you have cable and your provider is one of those three, you can find their phone number here at nofoxfee.com. (I imagine you need to have your own account number handy to prove you really are a subscriber.) Complain about them paying Fox a premium out of your payments. Tell them you never watch Fox News. Ask for that part of your fee back.
Carusone says this has already worked, first to keep DirecTV and Verizon from overpaying OAN, and more recently with Fox Sports.
I'm calling tomorrow as soon as I find our invoice.
1 comment:
If my wireless provider were still in the cable business, I’d be tempted to deduct a few dollars from my monthly bill, write a letter of explanation, and see what happens. Many companies would rather keep a customer who pays a little less than lose that customer.
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