Why Video Subscription Fees Are "So High"

Licensing fees paid by cable, satellite and telco distributors to program suppliers increased 8.2 percent in 2011 to around $33.5 billion, and likely will grow eight percent for each of the next several years going forward, surpassing $39 billion by 2013, according to Nomura Equity Research.
Just ffour media conglomerates account for 75 percent of this fees, with the Walt Disney Company representing 24 percent of all licensing fees, principally because of ESPN.

Notable: Disney distributes ESPN, which has far and away the highest carriage fees in the business, generating about $4.69 in licensing fees per subscriber, per month, the study shows.
Time Warner, which owns  HBO, TNT, TBS and CNN, represents 21 percent of affiliate fees; Comcast, owner of Bravo and the USA Network, accounts for 16 percent; and News Corp. represents 14 percent of fees.

Re-transmission fees paid to broadcast network affiliate stations totaled nearly $400 million in 2011 and should reach $750 million in 2012, as well.


Obviously, all those fees get passed along to consumers, as Paidcontent notes.