This week, Cable One, a company which provides service throughout the Midwest, Southwest and Northwest of America decided to drop certain networks provided by Turner Broadcasting. These channels included CNN, Cartoon Network and HLN. In return, Turner pulled the rights to air channels including TNT and TBS.
The Cable One dispute focuses on a demanded increase in subscription rates for various Turner channels. A subscription fee refers to the charge paid by the Cable company for every single one of its subscribers that has a particular channel. For example, Cable One paid Turner a set amount for every single customer whether that customer watched CNN or not. Most companies like Turner package their channels so that Cable companies must take the entire lineup rather than just the channels their customers want. When Cable One chose not to accept a 50% increase in these fees for struggling channels, they lost the ability to air any of the Turner Networks. Sadly, this comes right in the middle of MLB playoff season.
We are talking about this issue for a few reasons. The first is to assure our customers that this will not affect them. They will see no difference to their channel lineup due to this dispute. The second reason is to educate our customers about the dynamic between Cable companies, like Great Plains Communications, and content providers like Turner Broadcasting.
When a Cable company agrees to air a channel, it comes with a per customer fee that the Cable company pays to the Network. The Network also earns all of the revenue made through advertising. The Network will often group its channels as well. That means to carry one popular channel, the Cable company may also have to provide six channels with limited interest to its customers. They also have to pay that subscription fee for each of the lesser desired channels. The Cable company provides 100 percent of the transport for the signal and manages upkeep of these lines.
Here at Great Plains Communications, we have a team who works tirelessly to make sure that we are able to provide the best possible combination of value and program diversity possible. We take the time to listen to our customers to learn what programming they want and we work to secure the rights for that programming. We have been able to add many new channels over the past few years that our customers have asked for. We have also expanded our mobile offerings thanks to our partnership with Watch TV Everywhere.
We thank all of our Cable customers for their continued loyalty and we hope that we can continue to provide the best value possible.