Each time the retransmission agreement comes up between a media company and the cable or satellite company, it seems there is a pissing match between both sides that leads to a short-term blackout.

As TV stations see the ad dollars coming into the station dwindle, they continue to ask the cable company to pay them more money to carry a signal that is free over the air.

For years, TV stations looked at retransmission fees as the goose that laid the golden eggs.

But, stations are killing the goose and they don’t seem to care.

Many people that run TV companies don’t look to the future and only focus on the now.

Many viewers that have watched their cable bill go over $200 bucks a month are saying enough is enough and are cutting the cord.

I did that very same thing almost a decade ago and haven’t missed it a bit.

In the 3rd quarter of last year alone, 637,000 people dropped their cable. That’s just in one quarter!

TV stations continue to demand more money from the cable companies and that is what is raising your bill to the prices of a car payment. But, stations don’t seem to care and continue to demand more money from the cable companies.

With more streaming services being offered and a younger demo that doesn’t care to watch local TV, the future of local TV stations is not very bright.

Media groups need to start looking past the next month and into the future. You are like the dinosaur just before the meteors hit.

There is a way for local television to survive, but I’m not sure that people running local TV today have a clue what that is?

I have brought this up to media executives in conversations and more than once I have heard, “yes, the future doesn’t look good, but I will be long gone from this business before it implodes.”

In other words, they only care about now and care little about the future of this business.

I’m worried about the future of TV news and local TV, but it appears I’m one of the few.

In the meantime, stations need to stop gouging the viewers in retransmission agreements. The golden goose is on life support and you guys need to wake up and see that.

Case and point….