BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) Sunday is perhaps the biggest game on the Bills schedule. The rematch against Kansas City at 4:25pm. It's a CBS game that is carried locally on WIVB, Channel 4.
But Verizon Fios customers are receiving notices that WIVB maybe off the Fios lineup this weekend because of a carriage dispute, putting the Bills-Chiefs game in jeopardy for those viewers.
"It's happens every few years," said WBBZ Promotion and Program Director John DiSciullo. "It's called retransmission consent. The carriage partners, in this case, Fios, and the owners of channel 4, Nexstar Television, are at odds over what is basically a percentage per subscriber paid to the ownership of the station. It could be a nickel, a penny or a dollar. The agreed-upon amount goes back to the broadcaster in return for airing the programs on, in this case, Fios," he said.
There are approximately 625-thousand homes that use cable in Western New York. Fios does not have as much penetration locally. In addition to Verizon Fios, other carriage partners are Spectrum, Dish and Direct.
If it does result in an impasse and WIVB is taken off the Fios lineup, DiSciullo said it will have an impact.
"At some point it's like a game of chicken. Somebody has to give in; whether it's the carriage provider or the broadcaster." He added that it happens every couple of years because that's the length of these contracts.
The end result is typically a bigger bill for the consumer. The additional cost in the agreement is almost always handed down to the subscriber.
That higher cost is often a trigger for customers to cut the cord and buy an over the air antenna.
"I see it all the time at WBBZ," said DiSciullo. "We get calls from people (who recently cut their cable subscription) asking how can I find your station? We're still the new kids on the block even though we've been on the air for 12 years."
With retransmission consent, WBBZ is on channel 5, in between legacy stations, channels 4 and 7.
For those interested in cutting the cord, and doing a combination of streaming and getting local stations over the air with an antenna, you need a digital antenna, not the rabbit ears of years past.
"You want to place the antenna outside, and as high up as possible" said DiSciullo. A good quality antenna is VHF and UHF, so that it picks up both signals. Then you cable it right into your television."
Most TV's have an input. You either input the antenna for TV, or for HDMI.
DiSciullo warns against antennas that stick against a window, saying they're ok, but they don't pick up as much as an antenna that is mounted outside.
The offerings with an antenna are substantial. There are about 40 channels available including some outlying signals in Toronto and Erie. Picture quality is generally crisp and exceptional because it's not processed, which is what happens when it goes through cable or Fios.