Miami Retrans Spat Takes Unexpected Turn

In an almost unheard of turn of events, a broadcaster who has withheld their signal in the Miami DMA is permitting DirecTV to air its coverage of this weekend’s NFC Championship game between the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. Fox affiliate WSVN is permitting the satcaster to carry the game as a one time exception while they continue to hammer out a retransmission consent agreement.

Typically, broadcasters leverage their carriage of marquee programming and events in order to gain higher retrans payments. It seems that this time snowbirds in high-rises are causing WSVN to think twice. The typical tact is to encourage viewers to switch providers in order to continue to see their programming. The rub in the Miami market is that many of the people who would be most interested in the game (retirees and folks from the northeast who are in FL to escape the cold and snow back home) are in high rise condo buildings. Many of these buildings have exclusive contracts with DirecTV to provide video to the buildings. For these viewers, antennas and alternate providers are out of the question.

Putting aside the usual “he said, she said” stuff that is tossed around during retrans black-outs, you have to give WSVN credit for permitting carriage of the game. In taking the high road, perhaps they put more pressure on DirecTV; painting themselves as the ones who care more about the viewers. On the other hand, aside from the upcoming Republican Primary and general election, the game is likely one of their more lucrative ad sales opportunities for the year. Why would they not want to have the maximum number of viewers? Either way you slice it, it saves a lot of retirees the trouble of calling their kids back north to ask how cold it is, and while they are on the phone to also ask how to hook up a digital antenna with a DirecTV box and a DVD player.