Thread by @GoAngelo

1/ Did you know that Fox News could have $0 in advertising revenue and still have a 90% profit margin? That should be very surprising to you given that they are a commercial media outlet. Lemme tell you why this is the case and how it enables #FoxNewsLies

2/ Every TV channel charges cable providers a fee for carrying channel set during negotiations. This is a subscriber fee. Provider pay this fee for each customer they have, not viewer of channel. Providers bundle channels into packages and pass costs to subscribers.

3/ News & info channels’ subscriber fees are normally small. For ex MSNBC gets ~$0.33, CNN gets between $0.70-0.90 per month (and includes both CNN and CNN Headline News). In contrast, Fox News charges near or over $2 a month. This is wildly out of step with industry averages.

4/ Fox's fees though are artificially inflated. They don't get those rates because they have a lot of viewers. No no. They have artificially inflated these rates because they mobilize their audience (typically with lies) and get them to attack cable companies during negotiations

5/ Put another way, Fox News' fees are artificially inflated. Fox News would not be able to sustain itself in its current incarnation without bullying cable and satellite providers into paying more.

6/ For perspective, Fox News is often the second most expensive on everyone's cable bill! Even if you never watch it. If you have Fox News, you're paying the $2 (or more every month).

7/ It'd be one thing if they were getting fees similar to other channels. If they were, they'd be more accountable to market forces and advertiser losses. In this case, they force everyone to subsidize their lies and extremism.

And they're working to take even more right now.

8/ If you want to hold Fox News accountable, single most important thing you can do in this moment is to make sure they aren't successful at getting massive rate increases. (and to actually get them lowered or a fox free option).

Here's how to start: unfoxmycablebox.com