FBC to launch cable channel via TCI
The deal would be a way to address the issue of must-carry vs. retransmission consent, with Fox apparently to divide revenue from the channel with its affiliates based on the number of subscribers in their market area.
According to the report, Fox would pay affiliates either 7.5 cents per month for each cable subscriber in their market, or 5 cents plus participation in 25% of the cable channel's profit.
TCI and Fox declined comment.
Reports indicate the new channel would carry a mix of original and repeat programs.
Established relationship
Such a deal would continue a 2 1/2-year-old relationship between Fox and TCI, which in September 1990 reached an agreement on a carriage deal that would assure Fox coverage in "white areas" where it lacked an affiliate on TCI cable systems.
That agreement also called for TCI to upgrade Fox to the equivalent of VHF channel placement -- on channels 2 through 13 -- on TCI systems, a significant boost due to Fox's largely UHF affiliate base.
At the time, Fox's stations only reached about 91% of the U.S. With the TCI arrangement and similar pacts with other cablers, it now clears about 95% of the country.
New deal
The deal is one outcome of complicated new cable regs that require cable operators to negotiate with broadcasters over carrying local TV stations' signals.
The regulations give stations the option of must-carry, which assures them of carriage on cable systems without compensation, or retransmission consent, under which a broadcaster can seek compensation but isn't assured a position on the system.
Some cable operators have flatly said they won't pay broadcasters, as they do basic-cable networks, who, as under the Fox-TCI deal, receive a monthly payment per subscriber.
Affiliates, meanwhile, generally remain leery of their network becoming too cozy with cable, though thus far Fox's open posture in dealing with systems has generally prompted a muted response from its stations.
