Posted on 12/18/2009 2:46:05 PM PST by Zakeet
News Corp warned that testy carriage negotiations with Time Warner Cable Inc could leave viewers unable to see programing from its Fox broadcast network, including it blockbuster hit "American Idol" and NFL football.
Negotiations between the two sides have been primarily held up by a disagreement over the value of Fox's free-to-air broadcast network. Fox is asking Time Warner Cable for around $1 a subscriber in payment for the retransmission rights to carry its network, according to a person familiar with the talks.
Time Warner Cable executives have balked at paying that much and have claimed that negotiations with broadcast companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc and Local TV which carry local affiliate stations are in the 25 cents to 50 cents a subscriber range.
CBS Corp CEO Les Moonves, who has been a very vocal supporter of getting pay-TV providers to pay cash for the right to carry his broadcast network, has publicly said he expects his company to be paid around 50 cents a subscriber.
Fox said it has for the past nine months attempted to "negotiate in good faith" with Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 U.S. cable operator, which serves some 14 million customers, and said those talks are ongoing.
But there is a "very likely possibility that Time Warner Cable may choose to no longer carry Fox Broadcasting, Fox Cable and Fox regional sports programing," Fox said.
The negotiations do not include Fox's news channels or National Geographic channel in which it has a 50 percent stake.
Executives at Time Warner Cable will be hoping to reach an agreement ahead of January 12, when the new season of hugely popular "American Idol" returns to air.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This is only a game of corporate chicken. Each side is waiting for the other to get nervous and cave.
Time Warner would lose large numbers of subscribers and Fox would lose tons of advertising dollars.
They will work out a deal.
I'd dump them in a heartbeat if I could...
The city where I live gave TWC a monopoly: No other cable providers. And they won't allow Verizon or AT&T to run fiber, so there's nothing other than DSL, and I'm too far from the CO... I need high speed Internet for my work, and that means I only have one choice (satellite latency is too great for our VPN).
If they dump Fox News, I'll cut back to the bare minimum for cable.
Mark
This sounds more like pre-negotiation sabre rattling than real threats.
Just signed up for AT&T Uverse. Buh-bye TWC.
It works, but there is such a bad delay that both parties end up talking over one another.
I gave it up because my internet speed wasn’t fast enough.
Exactly. I haven't followed this issue, but I think it may have to do with FBC...Fox Business Channel.
You can't get that on the expanded cable offering locally...I don't know how high I'd have to go to get it. I can get Bloomberg, however.
I suspect Fox would settle for FBC carried on expanded cable.
I think on some systems they actually paid to have FoxNews carried.
Because OTA is supported by advertising. Cable companies also sell advertising. They expect to be paid for their product.
Indeed, they did.
Now that Fox has the audience hammer, they're entitled to squeeze all the bucks they can from the cable carriers. And, if it means taking a dime out of ABC, CBS and NBC's hide, so much the better.
This one runs at about 17.5 mbps download and .5 mpbs upload.
WE have time warner there is really no other choice here. If they did this I would cancel my cable because the only thing I do watch besides Foxnews are a few shows on Fox network.
Exactly. Broadcasters threatening to gouge cable companies has become as annual a tradition at New Years as the Rose Bowl.
Most cable companies settle without having to pay for over-the-air signal. What Fox *really* wants is to have more of their stations carried over similar programming provided by other carriers, such as Turner, Viacom, ABC/Disney, Discovery, etc.
It may drag for a week or more into the new year but both sides know they'll only lose money with a protracted carriage war.
Last year, it was NBC's turn to try to put the squeeze on cable companies. The local NBC affiliate was the one who took the bath of bad publicity. When your signal isn't received by many viewers, the local affiliate gets absolutely buried in the ratings.
I’ve had magic jack for a couple of years...20 bucks a year and free long distance anywhere in the US...
The cable company is charged by the local television company to retransmit what is free over the air. The cable company PAYS the local network affiliate. The cable company can not insert their own advertising into the feed. So the local network affiliate is making money from advertising THEN expecting the local cable subscribers to pay an additional fee to receive the same programming.
Has nothing to do with selling advertising - the affiliates don’t permit the insertion of ads by the cable provider.
could leave viewers unable to see programing from its Fox broadcast network, including it blockbuster hit "American Idol" and NFL football
Mr Jane Fonda isn’t one I’d expect to like Fox News.
If they cancel Fox we are gonna cancel Time Warner and go with Dish Network. Sick and tired of Time Warner. They are OVERPRICED, we pay 110.00 bucks a month for cable and the internet and we hardly get any damn channels. We have digital cable in the Den and the rest of the rooms have regular cable, they already removed the weather channel, family channel and oxygen from our TV, and the only way to get it back is if we get digital boxes in all the rooms, screw them. I can live without the weather channel, but NO fox..NO WAY..that would be the last straw for me. Whoever here has Dish Network, are you all happy with it?
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