We are now entering a situation where Disney is demanding that a cable company (Cablevision) pay for the rights to broadcast their 'over the air' channel, ABC, on the cable. The blackout date is Sunday and is time to coincide with the Oscars presentation. Although some have said that 'You can always watch the Oscars via the over the air broadcast" many of us, including myself, do not have digital antennas on our roofs/balconies/etc. that would allow our digital television to pick up the broadcast. In my we are on the ragged edge of the digital signal and are unlikely to be able to pick up ABC via any type of antenna. Content providers have the absolute right to sell their 'cable/satellite' only content to distributors at whatever price that they feel they can get/deserve/are entitiled to, however it is ridiculous for them to try and charge for content which is distributed freely over the air.
More information can be found at the Wall Street Journal
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