The value of viewing football
Many Iowans are struggling between supporting capitalism and wanting to watch the Iowa Hawkeye football team play in the Orange Bowl on cable television.
In the end, capitalism will win.
And it should.
The squabble between Mediacom Communications and Sinclair Broadcasting Group is about determining a price for something one company has and another company wants. Is raising the price simply greed on the part of Sinclair? Not any more than it is for companies that negotiate prices for milk, Barbie dolls or gasoline with stores that sell those items. If the price does not exceed the value that stores think consumers will pay, they buy. If the price does exceed the value, they don’t buy. So what is the value of being able to see the Orange Bowl on cable? We will soon find out.
Sinclair has a hot commodity with the Orange Bowl, and they are expecting Mediacom to ante up. Mediacom isn’t comfortable laying out the extra cash. Critics say that the increase from Sinclair will ultimately funnel down to increased rates for Mediacom subscribers. That’s probably true, but consumers will then need to ask themselves the same question that Mediacom is asking: Does the price exceed the value?
Last we checked, watching football on cable TV was not a right that was protected by the constitution. This isn’t about bearing arms, voting or religion. It is about football. We don’t need government to intervene in regards to TV viewing preferences. If 400,000 cable subscribers in this state can’t watch the Hawkeye-Georgia Tech game, then so be it. But don’t for a moment think that this doesn’t create potential problems for Sinclair. They are all about selling eyeballs to advertisers. And when there are fewer eyeballs, advertisers get concerned and don’t write the fat checks.
Don’t expect either side to back down quickly this time either. These contracts should have been negotiated months, if not years, ago. The Hawks’ great season and BCS bowl bid changed the playing field and helped Sinclair. They seem to fully intend to utilize that leverage, as they should.
That’s capitalism. Let it work. CV
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