Cable TV deal may be sealed but many questions remain
By Dave Carpenter |
January 4, 2010, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MANY questions remain for American cable TV viewers nationwide even after Fox and Time Warner Cable settled their noisy spat with a New Year's Day agreement. Cable TV standoffs threaten viewing costs and choices.
The deal was good news for more than 6 million Time Warner customers in the short term as College bowl and National Football League games, "American Idol" and a host of other popular Fox programs in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Orlando, Florida, and other markets are appearing on their screens as usual.
Fox had threatened to force Time Warner Cable and Bright House to drop its signal from 14 of its TV stations and a half-dozen of its cable channels if Time Warner didn't increase payments to Fox in a contract that took effect last Friday. The deal affects close to half of its customers. Time Warner is the nation's second-largest cable provider after Comcast Corp.
But the companies are not talking about how the agreement will affect customers' bills. And the mood among cable providers, broadcasters and other content producers has not improved.
A less amicable ending in a separate programming dispute showed the downside of playing hardball.
Cablevision Systems Corp customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut reacted angrily in more than 100 posts on Friday and Saturday on the media and entertainment news site Deadline.com after about 3.1 million subscribers lost access last Friday to HGTV and Food Network.
Comments accused Cablevision and Scripps Networks Interactive Inc - but mostly Cablevision - of greed and arrogance when they failed to reach agreement over a fee increase Scripps demanded.
Many of those who posted said they were switching to competitors or satellite or going online. Some were particularly upset at the prospect of missing a two-hour Iron Chef episode set for yesterday that featured Michelle Obama and the White House chef.
Neither Cablevision nor Scripps responded immediately on Saturday to questions about the status of talks.
The deal was good news for more than 6 million Time Warner customers in the short term as College bowl and National Football League games, "American Idol" and a host of other popular Fox programs in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Orlando, Florida, and other markets are appearing on their screens as usual.
Fox had threatened to force Time Warner Cable and Bright House to drop its signal from 14 of its TV stations and a half-dozen of its cable channels if Time Warner didn't increase payments to Fox in a contract that took effect last Friday. The deal affects close to half of its customers. Time Warner is the nation's second-largest cable provider after Comcast Corp.
But the companies are not talking about how the agreement will affect customers' bills. And the mood among cable providers, broadcasters and other content producers has not improved.
A less amicable ending in a separate programming dispute showed the downside of playing hardball.
Cablevision Systems Corp customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut reacted angrily in more than 100 posts on Friday and Saturday on the media and entertainment news site Deadline.com after about 3.1 million subscribers lost access last Friday to HGTV and Food Network.
Comments accused Cablevision and Scripps Networks Interactive Inc - but mostly Cablevision - of greed and arrogance when they failed to reach agreement over a fee increase Scripps demanded.
Many of those who posted said they were switching to competitors or satellite or going online. Some were particularly upset at the prospect of missing a two-hour Iron Chef episode set for yesterday that featured Michelle Obama and the White House chef.
Neither Cablevision nor Scripps responded immediately on Saturday to questions about the status of talks.
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