Capitol Broadcasting and AT&T U-Verse are cheating their viewers.
I came home the other night and settled in to watch the Falcons and Packers on Sunday Night Football, one of the marquee match-ups of the early NFL season. Turning to WRAL, which is now the local NBC affiliate, my screen had a blue background with a note about the feud going on between Capitol Broadcasting and AT&T over fees for its U-Verse cable coverage.
You are kidding me, right? Capitol blacks out coverage on WRAL and WRAZ, its Fox affiliate, because of a rate debate that is costing U-Verse customers the service they are paying for?
I went to the website on the screen – att.com/fightingforyou – to see what was going on. Short story, I don’t care who is fighting for whom; all I know is I am paying for U-Verse and not getting what I paid for by missing all NBC and Fox programming.
I wrote that in the comments section, which AT&T wants to use to force Capitol down from its new rate demands. My guess is that 90 percent of the comments reflect the same angry stance: this is your big business battle, not ours.
Do I care whether Capitol, the local media monolith, isn’t getting more money from AT&T, the largest communications company in the world, which has purchased DirecTV and Time Warner in the last few years? It is outrageous that these two media giants are dropping their fight in the laps of the viewers that pay millions to them. I also wrote if the problem is not corrected immediately, I am going back to Spectrum, which is the old Time Warner Cable and offering amazing deals to switch.
We already know how many billions AT&T is worth, and locally the Goodmon family that owns Capitol Broadcasting, the Durham Bulls and real estate developments all over the Triangle is the local version of AT&T. How in the hell does their fight over cable rates filter down to those who depend on them for their entertainment? Maybe AT&T wants its customers to quit U-Verse and move to DirecTV, which it now owns. I wouldn’t put it past them.
Personally, I don’t care who is right. They are both wrong. Capitol is reminding people that the programming is still available over-the-air or through their various apps. Big whoop for the 1 percent who still get their TV that way. If their channels are not available, Capitol suggests turning off cable and buying an antenna, or glorified rabbit ears, to pick them up. Outrageous!
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