The fairness doctrine?

[Virginian]

I just got home from a journey.
Each night I would check the channels for my regular lineup. To my utter astonishment and dismay, Not every location had MSNBC.
Some did have my favorite channel, and those that did also carried FauxNews. Some had FauxNews and no MSNBC. Some had neither.

Now this was just a small sampling in some red states so my observations could be skewed. This brings up a question, Does anyone out there know of an area that carries MSNBC and doesn't carry FauxNews?
If Faux has a wider distribution, then their bragging about a higher number of viewers is bogus and does not reflect what viewers will watch if the field is level.

[alp227]

1. Are you talking about hotels?

When I visited Washington, DC this summer the Marriott at Fairfax had MSNBC. I spent the night watching Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow shows. Probably the first time I've been in a hotel that actually had MSNBC and really the first hotel that had HDTV channels! But I was able to peek at the Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity shows during commercial breaks; that Marriott had Fox News too. Most other hotels I've seen with Fox News didn't have MSNBC. And maybe one of them (in Reno I believe) didn't even have CNN.

The JetBlue flight back from my vacation this year had Dish Network with CNN and Fox News but not MSNBC. However, the Virgin America flight I flew to New York City had MSNBC.

Fox News exploits sheep somehow by the fact that MSNBC is often thrown under the bus on cable systems as I've heard that sometimes you need to pay extra for MSNBC even if it's a basic cable channel.

[Virginian]

3. Yes, Hotels, but also on our cruise 3 years ago.

Royal Caribbean had fox and no MSNBC. If we can ever afford another cruise, I will ask first and if the cruiseline doesn't have a more balanced lineup, I won't float with that company.

[Bitwit1234]

9. So I suppose Fox pays more to have their channel

on. Someone should take a survey and then post it in the news all over the country that if all the News channels were on TV, Fox wouldn't have a chance in the ratings.

[Supply Side Jesus]

2. DOA

died along time ago...

[NobodyHere]

4. According to Wikipedia...

FoxNews reaches 102 million American households compared to over 78 million for MSNBC.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. Murdoch and Ailes have political objectives beyond just maximal profits. Maybe they sell

access to Fox "News" substantially cheaper than NBC sells MSNBC?

[KharmaTrain]

7. It's Called Carriage Fees...

This is a dark and dirty game cable operators have been playing for years. In short, if you want your cable channel on a system, you have to offer the cable company something...be it money (a "fee") or revenue sharing or a combination of the two. Faux has been very aggressive in its dealings with cable companies...first offering low or no fees to get their channels on and even paying to get them low channel numbers to reach the most viewers. It's all kosher...especially on cable where there are few, if any regulations regarding content. Don't like it...don't subscribe.

NBC and GE were late to the cable party...still clinging to the old "brick & mortar" teevee network. MSNBC got off to a slow start, suffered for years of little promotion and was viewed as a dump channel for network news and "doc block" programming. They really didn't start to get serious about the network until CNN began to falter and they were able to find a niche in reaching out to center/center left viewers. But their mission is purely to make money as opposed to faux that has a political agenda attached.

[KharmaTrain]

6. It Helps When Your Parent Company Owns The Satellites...

Many companies pay to get on hotel systems that are distributed via satallite across the country. Faux, who already owns several satellite systems knows the value in getting their channels on in as many places as possible and are willing to pay providers to include them. For cable operators, Faux offered the lowest carriage rates (especially to get their propaganda channel on as many systems as possible) and were more aggressive in getting onto as many systems as possible. It's all about knowing the market and working it to your advantage...call Murdoch every name in the book, but he's one saavy businessman who built a mega media empire from virtually nothing.

Faux's high ratings are due to their distribution...they are on more cable systems as well as having a support radio network and massive promotion across the other networks. In the broadcasting world there is no such thing as a "level" playing field...it's a business where you work to build an advantage and keep it.

But keep in mind the viewership for the news cables is a small portion of the population. At the most, Faux will draw 3 million viewers...that's not even 10% of those who voted rushpublican in 2008. Most people would rather watch Dancing with the Stars than anything on Faux.

[spinbaby]

8. Disney

The hotels at Disney World have MSNBC but not Fox.