Nasty Carriage Disputes are Driving Up the Costs of TV Streaming



Nasty Carriage Disputes are Driving Up the Costs of TV Streaming

Cord Cutters Ultimately are Left Paying the Price for Carriage Disputes


Nasty Carriage Disputes


Carriage Disputes seem to happen more frequently these days. A carry over from the cable TV and satellite days, it is now affecting cord cutters and driving up prices.

Roku was recently in the news with YouTube threatening to remove their channel from the Roku platform after both companies could not come to an agreement. Content providers have leverage over companies like Roku, Apple TV and Amazon. Because they depend on other providers and their content to make their streaming services and media streaming platform more appealing to consumers.



Money Drives Most Carriage Disputes and Drives the Cost Up for End Users


A carriage dispute is a lot like extortion. A content provider whose channel accounts for many hours streamed on a platform has greater leverage to negotiate a better deal than a less popular channel. But when it affects very popular channels and there is no agreement, one party usually resorts to threats of removing the affected channel.

Each side will blame the other, and often email their customers and subscribers, asking them to put pressure on the other party. Ultimately, they often come to some agreement which ends up costing consumers more money to watch the same content.

It may be Time for the FCC to Step In and Arbitrate Carriage Disputes

These days carriage disputes are happening far too frequently. And there may come a time when consumers who end up getting the short end of the stick each time may need to reach out to a 3rd party like the FCC and demand that they put an end to these costly disputes.

Both parties, if they can't come to terms, could then bring their case to the FCC and let them decide which party is in the right and issue a judgement. This could help prevent the blackouts that happen by inflated egos of media executives.

If the parties don't agree to the decision, the channel would be banned from the platform for one year. This way, both parties would be more inclined to make a decision that would benefit each other, rather than risk losing to FCC arbitration. Or potentially losing the revenue from having their channel banned for a year.


What Can You Do if Your Favorite Media Streamer is Involved in a Carriage Dispute


Unfortunately, at this time consumers who are the victims of carriage disputes have little leverage. But there is one thing you can do that will insulate you from most disputes and ensure you can continue watching your favorite channels uninterrupted.

Invest in alternative media streamers. If you only own a Roku, then every time there is a dispute and a content provider removes a channel, you will need to do without. Savvy cord cutters may already own several brand media streamers from Amazon, Apple or an Android TV box like a Nvidia SHIELD.

This gives them other options to watch their favorite channels on a competing platform. Alternative media streamers also have the added benefit of giving you access to much more content than simply relying on a single brand.

Initially, this may cost cord cutters a little more money. But having access to multiple media streamers gives TV streamers additional options to watch what they want without ever being held hostage to someone else's carriage dispute. 


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