Some station groups are looking for CBS Corp.(CBS) to carry the ball in leaning on cable companies to pay for carrying local channels.
Bob Prather, president-COO of Gray Television, said "It's going to take CBS and some of the big guys to push this to get paid, if they really push hard, especially CBS, everybody will get paid--once they break the doors down.
"I don't see (MSOs) paying anybody until they really get a gun to their head, and we don't have a big enough gun, CBS has a howitzer."
CBS is reportedly committed to demand that cash be paid for carriage.
This is all about the uncertainty of the television business. Short term, there are a tremendous amount of variables that make make predictable streams of income no longer feasible to the industry. This would provide new, consistent revenue for the stations while things in the industry shake out and find where it is going.
The industry has been completely disrupted with the growing amount of options consumers have to access shows. It will take a number of years to see clearly where it will all end up. In the meantime, business leaders are scrambling to find ways to get revenue streams they can count on until this time of disruption clears up.
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