Could Disney, Hulu and Netflix Go Away In Amarillo?
The big thing over the last 5 or so years has been "cutting the cord".
People moving away from traditional cable companies and loading up on different types of streaming services.
Streaming services could offer all sorts of content on demand, and there were streaming services that offered live and local television along with all the on-demand stuff for a fraction of the price.
Now those "cord cutters" could find themselves having to look at going back to traditional cable here in Amarillo.
Disney, Hulu, and Netflix are being sued by the city of Amarillo and 24 other cities for MILLIONS in unpaid fees. That's the kind of thing that will get you shut off.
One of the things people had an issue with when it came to traditional cable was all the different fees they'd see pop up on their bill. Well, that wasn't the cable company trying to rake you over the coals.
The cable company has to pay cities what's called a franchise fee in order to be able to broadcast in those cities. Cable uses communication lines over public rights of way in order to broadcast into your home or favorite bar.
Well, guess what? Streaming services also have to pay those franchise fees in the cities just like the cable companies, and Disney, Hulu, and Netflix haven't done that since 2007.
Ultimately, the cities could deny these providers to use their communication lines and render the services useless. The amount of homes that would affect is immeasurable, and would cost these services millions of dollars in revenue should they not be allowed to use those lines.
If you're wondering about what the franchise fee goes towards, it's things like police and fire protection, parks (which is a hot topic in the 806), roads, etc. If these companies don't pay their fees, we have less money to devote to things that matter in our city.
This will be interesting to watch as one day you may wake up and not have these services. Will the companies step up and take care of what they need to? We'll find out soon enough.