A New Look at Retransmission Consent: Take a Cue from Broadcasters!

I got this idea from local broadcasters.  Well, sort of.  It actually comes from the recent aggressive aggregators of local stations.  Not, mind you, that they were suggesting it and they certainly wouldn't agree with it but near as I can tell they’re making the same long- term mistake that long-tail cable network operators have been making for years.  It is something often called “greed” and justified with a sprightly, “Well, we’ve gotten away with it, haven’t we?”  Well, not really.  The local broadcaster mistake with ever-escalating retransmission consent requests is believing the following:  “Let’s keep raising the rates.  What could go wrong?”  There are a couple of answers to that question.