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CBS Rakes in $1 Billion in 2016 from Cable, Satellite TV Customers

Phillip Dampier February 20, 2017 Consumer News 3 Comments

CBS earned $1 billion from cable and satellite TV customers in 2016, collected from providers in return for permission to carry CBS stations on their lineups.

“Annual revenue from retransmission consent and reverse compensation has already exceeded $1 billion, a full year ahead of schedule, and continues to grow rapidly,” said CBS CEO Les Moonves in a statement.

Most cable and satellite providers pass along those fees directly to consumers either in the price charged for service or through so-called “Broadcast TV surcharges” that are broken out separately on the bill. CBS has plans to more than double those fees, with a target of collecting $2.5 billion annually by the year 2020. One-third of CBS’ national coverage area will face contract renewal discussions in the next 24 months, leading to higher priced renewals.

Other networks are also expecting similar compensation boosts, and SNL Kagan projected operators would be passing on $10.6 billion in broadcast TV retransmission consent fees within the next three years. That could raise the Broadcast TV surcharge to $10-15 a month in some areas, just to cover fees charged by local ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, MyNetworkTV and NBC stations.

Some of the windfall profits CBS are collecting from retransmission agreements could be spent acquiring more TV stations, if FCC Chairman Ajit Pai loosens TV station ownership limits.

“If the cap is lifted we’d strategically look to buy more stations,” Moonves said.

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Josh
Josh
7 years ago

All the more reason to dump cable and do free ATSC over the air.

Of course they want to take away even MORE of our bandwidth so Verizon or Comcast or whomever can sell it back to us…I want the LAST bit they stole returned!

Ryan
Ryan
7 years ago
Reply to  Josh

Better yet,dump ATSC and switch to DVB-T2. The FCC is considering this. DVB-T2 can recieve signals while moving. Some NC stations even tested DVB-T2 and found beneficial results. ATSC has LOT OF DISADVANTAGES TOO.

Lee
Lee
7 years ago

With the change in over the air from analog to digital, it is now possible to encrypt the signal and charge for over the air. I expect that to happen. Why leave money on the table? That had been discussed in the executive board meetings without doubt.

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