Saturday, August 3, 2013

TWC Blackouts Hit CBS-TV In Major Markets

CBS Corp.'s flagship broadcast network was dropped from Time Warner Cable Inc.'s TWC TV service in New York, Los Angeles and other major markets Friday after long-running negotiations between the companies failed to reach a deal on fees.

According to wsj.com, the blackout, that started at 5 p.m. Eastern time, came more than a month after a previous agreement between CBS and Time Warner Cable expired, although it had been extended several times to allow negotiations on a new deal.

The two companies have been negotiating over fees to be paid by Time Warner Cable for the right to carry CBS programming. In a statement, CBS accused Time Warner Cable of negotiating "in a combative and nonproductive spirit…while maintaining antiquated positions no longer held by any other programming distributor in the business."

Time Warner Cable said in a statement that "CBS has refused to have a productive discussion" over the past few days. "It's become clear that no matter how much time we give them, they're not willing to come to reasonable terms," it said.

About three million subscribers were expected to be affected by a blackout, which covers CBS Corp.'s Showtime premium channel as well as CBS.

Read More Now

No comments:

Post a Comment