Smaller Cable Networks at Risk of Being Squeezed Out?

More small "cable channels" are going to have incentives to seek carriage on Apple TV, Google TV, Amazon or Netflix if cable and telco networks start to bump them off line-ups in favor of more-popular channels.

AT&T allowed its contract with Crown Media to lapse, essentially dropping the Hallmark cable networks when the deal expired at midnight on Sept. 1. According to JP Morgan Chase analyst Imran Khan, “there has been no sign of progress toward reaching a deal,” suggesting that AT&T might not bring those stations back to its U-verse pay TV service.

Content owners ultimately will be the decisive factor in pushing more content to online distribution, and being dropped from multichannel video basic line-ups is the sort of thing that will drive the moves.

Smaller Cable Networks at Risk of Being Squeezed Out?