Paying cash to carry TV broadcast signals on cable? Not going to happen.

That was Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ message at the Bear Stearns Media conference Tuesday afternoon in response to a question about broadcasters demanding payments from cable companies for carrying their signals. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has been locked in renewal negotiations with Comcast, and CBS Corp. comes to mind.

“We think we can get a deal that involves something other than cash,” he said.

Carrying TV signals on cable systems traditionally has been negotiated as part of retransmission consent agreements whereby cable operators agree to carry a media company’s cable networks in exchange for “free” carriage of its TV network signals. With pure broadcasters, the parties have typically exchanged advertising time instead of cash.

But with Viacom’s split from CBS last year, CBS Chief Les Moonves has vowed to get paid cash for carriage, now that they no longer have cable networks in their portfolio (with the exception of Showtime).

Moonves at Bear Stearns on Monday:
“We’re talking cash because we’re now isolated. When we were part of Viacom, (we were) part of a package. When Comcast does a deal with them (Disney), they say they are paying $3.25 for a sub (subscriber) for ESPN, and zero for ABC … We have made nine deals in the last week. The big ones are starting to come up. We are going to get paid for our content.”