You've been hearing about retransmission disputes between broadcasters and programming distributors, now you have the bottom line from the master: Small distributors are going to get "creamed."

Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, Dr. John Malone (who, among many other titles is Chairman of DIRECTV) noted: “The biggest distributors have some leverage in that (broadcaster v. distributor) negotiation because they can do damage. The smaller distributors are going to be pretty powerless to protect themselves from getting creamed, so it’s going to lead to more consolidation.”

That, in turn, leads to today's conventional wisdom that consolidation will increasingly be the name of the game in media circles ... unless, of course, Congress or the FCC get involved. The latter scenario is favored in current media circle talking points. In response to a request from 14 companies including DIRECTV and DISH, the FCC has begun a formal proceeding on current retransmission regs.

Of course, on the bottom line, the people most likely to get "creamed" are consumers. As Malone notes: “In the end, the distributors are really the middle men. It’s the American public that’s going to end up paying.”•