Have you noticed the ugly battle on TV between Mediacom and KGAN Channel 2, the area’s CBS affiliate? Do you care? Are you scared you’re not going to be able to watch the Super Bowl? Well, after some looking into the situation, and I mean very little, I have come up with my own insights and for how we, as brainwashed TV watchers, can react. From what I gather, Mediacom is saying that KGAN’s parent company, Sinclair Broadcasting, is being greedy and wants to be paid to provide its free broadcast channel to Mediacom for distribution over cable, which will cause your cable rates to go up. Sinclair says, and I quote, “...they should allocate some of the money you pay them to receive the programming that matters to you. This station may be free over-the-air, but Mediacom wants to sell it to you and we think they should have to pay to acquire an asset before they sell it.” In other words, Sinclair is saying that Mediacom is greedy for charging you to carry their free signal.

I suppose Mediacom would say it’s packaging the channel with ones you DO pay for and that there is no charge for this channel directly, but I didn’t ask them. I think it is all semantics and Mediacom is likely allocating a portion of current rates towards the convenience of getting a clear local broadcast channel on its system. I wondered if Sinclair is being paid by other providers to carry its signals. I also wondered if Mediacom pays other broadcasters to carry their otherwise free signals. The information put forth by Sinclair on these topic is a big “maybe.” It makes no specific claim of Mediacom paying anyone else, but notes that it believes because, for instance, Disney owns ABC and ESPN that compensation for carrying KCRG Channel 9 (ABC Affiliate) is wrapped into the prices Mediacom pays for the parent company’s cable-only options. And Sinclair says it “only grants retransmission consent of its digital signals where it has received adequate consideration.” But it will not disclose any specific example of being paid by another cable provider for carrying its signal, though it has come to carriage agreements with all other major cable providers.

The dispute also does not claim that Mediacom is unwilling to pay at all, only that the amount is not to Sinclair’s liking. So if Mediacom is willing to pay something, but it’s not enough to make Sinclair happy, the matter of who’s being greedy gets even fuzzier. “You are paying Mediacom quite a bit of money every month in order to receive programming. Mediacom takes that money and uses it to pay the cable channels, such as Animal Planet, MTV and HGTV. We believe, and the ratings certainly support the view, that the programming broadcast by CBS 2 is much more important to you.” In my opinion, I think they’re likely both a little right. Is Sinclar greedy to ask for something that other broadcasters in the area have not sought, or should all broadcasters be fairly compensated to carry their content? Perhaps Sinclair is just the first one into the breach and thus been labeled an instigator.

It has also been argued that cable providers are more than happy to see the death of broadcast television, and using a situatuion like this to get rid of Channel 2 is the beginning of a slippery slope. Unfortunately for Sinclair, it kind of seems to me, an outside observer, that Mediacom has Channel 2 over a bit of a barrel, at least in the Dubuque market.

After Channel 2 goes off the cable system, you can still get your CBS network programming including NFL (which means the Super Bowl), Survivor, 60 Minutes, CSI and the CBS evening news on WISC (Cable channel 12), the CBS affiliate out of Madison. You can still get your Hawkeye basketball on KWQC (Cable channel 13), the ABC affiliate out of the Quad Cities. Both of these broadcast signals are carried by Mediacom. Whether or not is was foreseen at the time, it has turned out to be a clever strategy by Mediacom. So the only thing big you are losing is KGAN local news, if you are a fan of that broadcast. Their news ratings would suggest that you are not. However, if you have been noodling the idea of switching to satellite TV for some time anyway, CBS2 will make it easier. It’s offering a $150 rebate ($10/month for 15 months) if you switch from Mediacom to DirecTV by Dec. 1. DirecTV will carry Channel 2. So that’s nice. I thought the TV ad stating that offer that was a jab-to-the-heart retaliation for Mediacom’s none-too-loving ad attacking Sinclair.

And we thought negative campaign ads were done for two more years. Then again, you can just dig the rabbit ears out of the closet. You may need to dig the old TV that even had rabbit ears out of the closet as well and plug it back in. Channel 2 is a free broadcast channel and can be received with an antenna at any time. Sounds like a vote for the Green Party candidate. Or you could start reading more. I see you have already started.