Make Them All Play Fair
Make Them Play Fair - Email To a Friend is a viral letter writing campaign orchestrated by the cable companies in an attempt to foist the responsibility for rising cable rates onto the networks.
We modified our letter just a little from the suggested version. Here's our version:
As you probably know, our cable company sent us an e-mail asking me to protest the rate increase it has received from the two primary providers of sports programming. We don't buy it.
We are paying for these networks' failure to execute a profitable business model without gouging the consumer. We recognize that cable companies have to pay cable networks for the right to distribute the networks' channels to cable customers.
We are also aware that ESPN and FOX receive revenue from advertisers on both their cable and regular networks such as ABC in addition to subscriber revenue from cable companies and that they have the ability and responsibility to control their own organizational costs.
We also know that the cable companies find it easy to blame the sports networks, particularly Fox Sports and ESPN, for increased costs, which have dramatically increased prices, and that this is driving up the price that customers are asked to pay for cable television.
It appears that both the cable companies and the networks believe that the demand for sports programming is totally inelastic, and that customers will pay anything to see overpaid athletes perform poorly.
The sports networks, particularly Fox Sports and ESPN, need to moderate their price increases to help keep the cost of my cable bill only as high as it is now, even if it means dropping the extra versions of these brands.
If these networks want to continue to have viewers, they need to pass this cost along to the advertisers and sports leagues, not the viewers, if they are unable to control their cost structure through better negotiations and cost reductions.
These networks also need to be more aggressive in negotiations with the leagues so that this is not necessary. Athletes, owners and advertisers are making huge profits while local games are blacked out due to arcane rules, which are eroding the long-term prospects for a local fan base for professional sports. Where are the customer rebates for blacked out games that the rest of the country sees on ESPN for the same price we pay, while we see a black screen or, worse, an infomercial for which they make still more revenue?
If ad revenues do not warrant paying the prices the leagues ask, or the networks cannot use their leverage to pressure the NFL to rescind the blackout rule, these networks should not pick up these products. Consumers should not pay for the mistakes TV Network executives have made in bidding for football, baseball and other broadcast rights.
Additionally, the cable companies need to realize that they also bear responsibility for any price increase, and that simply blaming it on the big bad networks as if they have no power to negotiate their deals doesn't sit well with consumers.
Worst case scenario, our cable company should be allowed to include only the basic ESPN and Fox Sports channels and place the additional sports channels like ESPN2, ESPN Now and ESPN Classic, which were introduced to create the illusion of value, on an optional tier which consumers can choose whether or not to buy.
This will help keep the cost of our cable bill only as high as it is now, which is already outrageous.
We are also sending this to our elected officials so that they understand that the rapid and unrestrained rise in sports TV network costs, along with the networks' and cable companies' lack of responsibility for their own business models, are further threatening the already tenuous value of cable television for American consumers.
It will be interesting to see if they still send it.
