Day 11 without an agreement.  Raycom has said

DirecTV has refused Raycom’s offer to enter into a contract that would allow continued carriage of this station through June, 2014.  Raycom and DirecTV continue negotiations for carriage rights of this station on the DirecTV service.

DirectTV believes it has a valid agreement in place already, since the last one auto-renewed through 2014…if sources are to be believed.

I’m watching my local NBC affiliate on channel 12 in Richmond, VA via Direct TV.  I’m seeing local news this morning and everything looks like normal.  The scroller at the bottom of the screen says the same thing as their site, which is that they’ve sent an signed agreement to Direct TV for signature, but haven’t received it yet.

So Raycom Media is allowing Direct TV to broadcast without agreeing to all of the terms?  The website statement says that they’ve agreed to substantially all of the terms, but that doesn’t tell us what the real problems are.

I’m guessing that Raycom blinked because they we being cast in a bad light.  Direct TV appears to be keeping the status quo.

I have no problem with Raycom making a buck, but it is hard to charge extra carriage fees for something they broadcast for free, then complain when they want more carriage fees.

Tonight at midnight, as the ball is dropping in Times Square and in Carytown above the Byrd theatre, my local NBC affiliate will turn off its signal to Direct TV.  Why is this and is this right?

Raycom’s explanation is here.  They say that Direct TV charges hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly to people in the Richmond, Virginia area to deliver Raycom’s content.  Raycom wants a bigger cut of that revenue and Direct TV wants the status quo.  I have not read any statement from Direct TV, but after reading Raycom’s explanation, I side with Direct TV.

Raycom broadcasts their signal for free over the air.  Since it is not broadcast in standard definition any more, the only way  I can get their signal is either via a HD TV, a HD converter or something like Direct TV.  I don’t want to buy new HD TV’s (I have 1 which is enough for now) and I think buying the converters is silly when I already have Direct TV.

So Raycom is charging Direct TV for what they give normal consumers for free.  Raycom wants more money from Direct TV and doesn’t care if we get charged more for it.  I watch the same commercials on my NBC station, regardless of whether it comes across the air or over Direct TV.  Raycom gets more revenue by me watching it via Direct TV than if I watch it over the air via HD TV.  So why are they wanting even MORE money from Direct TV?

I think Raycom is just being greedy and blind.

Perhaps advertisers or consumers don’t agree on the quality of the programming so they are getting less for commercials and advertising.  I don’t know.  But if you need to make up revenue, don’t take the people who are paying you and charge more when you are giving it to a large audience for free anyway.

Raycom, please get a clue and back off of Direct TV.  I will not switch to Comcast (shudder), and you won’t stream all of your content to me (I wish!!) over the web.  Raycom, you and only you will be responsible if Direct TV chooses not to air your content any longer and you’ll get less revenue because of it.  Your market share will decline and you’ll also be out the money Direct TV was paying you.  Keep the status quo.  Do the right thing by your viewers.  Richmond NBC 12 gets more airtime in my house than any other local station, and I assume you want to keep it that way.

If my screen goes black, you’ve lost.  I’ll watch Chuck via Hulu and get my news from another local station like WTVR 6.  Who knows, I might even decide I like it better too.

P.S. If you are on Twitter, find my tweet at http://twitter.com/#!/DonaldFoss and retweet it!

Update #1: According to http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/12/directv_says_it_has_no_plans_t.html, Raycom didn’t provide termination notice to Direct TV in the timeframe specified by the contract, so the Raycom – DirectTV agreement was automatically extended to 31 December 2011.  This is apparently why Direct TV isn’t interested in talking more.  If Raycom turns off the signal, Direct TV can sue them and probably get damages too.

Update #2: No ruling yet, but according to http://www.semissourian.com/blogs/mmiller/entry/39072/, it is about more than just money (yeah, right). It’s also that “Stations are also vying for channel position, carriage of additional sister stations, etc.”  Personally I don’t buy it.  It’s primarily about the money.

Update #3: Well, sorta an update.  Sinclair and Time Warner cable were in the same situation and they called a time-out.  They moved the deadline to January 14.  I think that was a smart thing to do.  See  http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/31/news/companies/sinclair_time_warner_cable_dispute/

Update #4: Went to watch the Today show on Direct TV this morning and it was there with no problem.  However when they went to the local news segment, it just showed the public service weather thing you would see on 12.2 over the air.  So it looks like the only thing that Raycom is denying is the local news and weather?  I’m even seeing local commercials! There are 2 other local TV stations in town to watch, and who knows, maybe I’ll like them better now that I’m forced to watch them.  Raycom says “Raycom has agreed in writing to substantially all the terms mutually negotiated to keep this station on DirecTV’s service. Raycom has sent DirecTV a signed agreement for DirecTV to execute.  We are awaiting DirecTV’s signature on the agreement.”  Since we don’t know what all the terms are, we don’t know what “substantially all of the terms” really means.  It could be everything but the extra money Raycom wants in their pocket.

As an entrepreneur and long time Internet enthusiast, I know that innovation sometimes comes from the strangest places.  Frequently though, the innovation comes from students who are the best and brightest of other countries, coming to study here.  Why then do we educate them so well, then send them home?  Support the StartUp Visa program which would allow foreign entrepreneurs to create their companies here, hire employees here and build their businesses in the US.  This program is good for US jobs and industry.  Click on the tweet button above to send a note of your support to your US representatives.

To my non-USA friends–you can take a breather on this one.

Well, it actually comes from NPR, but it’s still pretty good, not to mention factual.  See the Hayek vs Keynes Rap Video, featured on the Freakonomics blog at the NY Times.

I wasn’t aware that Tampa Bay was a hotbed of UFO activity, but they’re reporting that an unknown object, approximately 33-50 feet wide, will come within 80,000 files of the Earth around 7:47 am EST Wednesday 1/14/2010. Hopefully somebody will figure out what it is and that it is friendly.

A couple kissing through surgical masks…

As everyone knows, Miss California lost the Miss USA title because she gave an honest question to a difficult question.  Fox News reports that Perez Hilton gave her a 0 for her answer because he is a gay activist and he was very offended by her answer.

There are a number of questions arising from this.  Was Perez fair?  Did this cost her the crown?  Should she sue?

First, Perez scored her based on his offense, not according to the scoring instructions.  The 0 was not based on her poise, grace, intelligence or anything other than him not agreeing with her.  It’s not like she couldn’t find the US on a globe or something.

Next, did it cost her the crown?  Coming in second place and having a 0 on the score for that section certainly makes it more interesting to say the least.  Perez himself says that she was the front runner until that question.

Lastly, should she sue?  In some ways I hope so, but in other ways I’m tired of our over litigious society.  I’m sure that Miss USA feels badly enough about this as it is and this tarnishes the pageant in many other ways.

I personally hope “The Donald” publicly denigrates Perez for causing all of these problems, making the audacious statements that he has and bringing harm to the pageant.  It doesn’t matter what anything thinks about Prop 8 or Perez Hilton’s personal beliefs.  He scored her incorrectly.  He was wrong and should be rebuked.

According to a February 28, 2009 article in National Geographic, Mars Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Global Warming. From the article:

Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.

Obviously Abdussamatov isn’t very popular.  His work hasn’t been “well received” by other climate scientists who would potentially be a) wrong and/or b) out of work if he is right.  “His views are completely at odds with the mainstream scientific opinion,” said Colin Wilson, a planetary physicist at England’s Oxford University.  Mainstream science thinks that Mars is wobbling, causing shifts in solar radiation to the poles.  Mar’s lack of a large moon makes it wobbles worse.

Abdussamatov also maintains that solar irradiance is decreasing, leading to a cold snap in 2040.  Perhaps the effect of CO2 in the air will balance with decreased solar irradiance leading to consistent temperatures over the next 50 years.

On another side, El Reg had an article 9 April 2009 stating that our clean air regulations and improvements to air quality is causing the increase in temperatures at the poles, not global warming.  More heat from solar radiation is making it through due to decreased sulfates and increased aerosols in the air.  Sooty aerosol from the Chinese traps some of the heat too… So we humans can decide whether we’re helping, hurting, or having no effect.

I hear that Bush Street in San Francisco was temporarily renamed to Obama Street.  This is just plain silly and somewhat vindictive.  In this day of casual Friday, or even casual Monday – Friday, some respect is still due to our leaders.  I’m 100% for free speech, but I just don’t understand some people.   Thankfully this isn’t something really being done by the city, at least not yet.