Fox, DirecTV sign retrans accord  Tue, 11/01/2011 - 2:15pm Brian
Santo  On the day their extended retransmission contract ran
out, Fox Networks and DirecTV reached an agreement for the
latter to continue carrying all of the former's cable network
channels.  The retrans negotiations between the two got bitter,
with Fox taking out newspaper ads aimed at inducing DirecTV
subscribers to either complain to DirecTV or churn to another
provider, all to create pressure on DirecTV to capitulate to
whatever demands Fox was making. DirecTV complained to the FCC
that those Fox ads were deceptive.  The two companies issued the
following joint statement: "We both know the past ten days have
been challenging, but we're pleased that both sides could
eventually come together to ensure our viewers continue to enjoy
Fox programming."  Smaller Tier 2 and Tier 3 service providers
have been complaining for many years that programmers have been
abusing their market positions to extract ever-greater
retransmission fees, but in the p