4 WINTER 2026 UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGES: WHY DO TV BILLS KEEP GOING UP? Over the past decade, broadcasters have abused outdated rules to boost their bottom lines. To this day, they continue to threaten viewers with blackouts. Retransmission consent fees (“retrans fees”) are the payments that TV distributors (cable, satellite, and other TV providers including Consolidated) make to broadcasters to carry their TV channels. Retrans fees are a relic of a time before the internet. Consider that: • Retrans fees were established by the 1992 Cable Act. • The rules were written at a time when most of us had only one choice for pay TV service. • Today, we have multiple TV options, but our video rules are still based on the old model of only one pay TV provider. Broadcasters Use Blackouts and Lobbying to Charge Higher Fees National broadcast networks are forcing local stations to charge higher retrans fees and demanding a cut of the profits. Retrans fees were intended to support local broadcast journalism, but station owners in faraway places are stripping resources from local communities to fatten their profits. If the demands for higher fees are not met, broadcasters yank their signals from consumers, leaving you without your favorite programming indefinitely. Broadcaster’s blackout their channels until their ransom demands are met. And when they are, it results in much higher prices to you, the consumer. Big broadcasters are paying an army of Washington lobbyists to keep the current retrans fee system in place because they want to continue to charge higher and higher fees for their programming. Despite tremendous changes in how consumers watch TV, the rules governing the video marketplace have stayed the same. The “Big 4” networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX) provide programming such as morning and nightly national news shows, some daytime dramas, and prime time and late night shows. That programming is then shown by their owned and operated (“O&O”) stations or their affiliate stations.
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