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FRIDAY: Around 4 PM today, Fox Networks Group and Time Warner Cable finally struck a deal. Of course it happened while I was out of the office this afternoon. Here's their statement:
The Fox Networks Group and Time Warner Cable announced today that they have agreed in principle to a comprehensive distribution agreement to provide more than 13 million households with programming from Fox Television Stations, Fox Broadcasting (FOX), Fox Cable Networks and Fox’s Regional Sports Networks. The deal also includes carriage agreements for Bright House Networks’ 2 million additional subscribers.
"We're pleased that, after months of negotiations, we were able to reach a fair agreement with Time Warner Cable -- one that recognizes the value of our programming,” said Chase Carey, Deputy Chairman, President and COO, News Corporation.
“We’re happy to have reached a reasonable deal with no disruption in programming for our customers,” said Glenn Britt, Chairman, President and CEO, Time Warner Cable.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
FRIDAY 10:15 AM PT: Both sides still at the negotiating table.
FRIDAY 4:30 AM PT: "I think it could be a couple more hours... honestly," an insider told me at 1 AM. Still no breakthrough and still no blackout. I'll check in later this AM. Happy 2010.
THURSDAY 9:35 PM UPDATE: An insider just told me: "We're still negotiating but Fox has decided to give Time Warner Cable a little more time. We hope to reach a fair and reasonable agreement very soon."
9 PM UPDATE: It's midnight on the East Coast -- and Time Warner Cable has just announced receiving "a brief extension with Fox, Food, and GAC as negotiations continue". Soon after, Fox said, "We're still negotiating and going to give it a little more time."
7:20 PM: So last year I spilled a lot of Internet ink detailing the nasty end-of-2008 retransmission fees battle between Viacom and Time Warner Cable only to see them settle at the 11th hour. Where's the fun in that? So I'll only write about the current nasty retransmission fees war between News Corp/Fox and Time Warner Cable if it goes past midnight. Cynics like me see FCC chair Julian Genachowski's proposal earlier today -- it urges Fox and Time Warner Cable to agree to a temporary extension of carriage if they do not come to terms on a new agreement tonight in order to prevent disruption to their viewers -- to be a way for both sides to save PR face.
Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable said the company has reached a brief extension as well with Scripps Networks Interactive Corp, which is also warring with Cablevision over carriage fees amid the threat that its Food Network and HGTV channels may be dropped as of midnight primarily in the New York area. UPDATE: Scripps Yanks Food Network & HGTV Off Cablevision in NY, NJ, Conn.
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If they want to take FOX off, or if FOX won’t agree to a temporary extension, neither side cares about the public so goodbye to TWC as soon as other arrangements can be made.
Dish Network is no better. They moved the channels that I watched to a more costly plan. So they are no better TWC.
But it’s such a delicious story, Nikki! From Fox’s eggregious propaganda stories – which they run on their nightly NEWS telecasts, to the plummeting revenues to Fox that would result if they actually carried through on their threat to cut their signal (b/c ratings would plunge and advertisers would balk at paying for commercials), there are just SO many angles to this story!
Fox blackout? Bring it. I don’t care about Idol or football. And whatever Fox shows/movies I don’t get live (which I could get with rabbit ears, you Fox idiots), I can get any number of ways on the Internet.
Stay strong and stick it to Rupert, I say. Fox is the only loser in all this. Have fun putting your numbers together without much of the major markets.
Oh, and if you’re going to go, please take your sham news network with you. It broadcasts more fiction than Fox TV anyway.
Tell fox we don’t need their channels anyway, and take their fake news channel with them.
C’mon, Nikke – Saving PR Face? Are you serious? This is PR heaven. I’m not normally prone to conspiracy theories, but isn’t everyone missing the window of opportunity here? When it comes to media marketing and the value of publicity – any kind of publicity, everything is fair game – and, as they say in the on-air promo world – “Anything can happen!” This seemed like the perfect ploy to get everyone on the edge of their seats, glued to their sets, waiting until the 11th hour, when – just as the ball drops and blood pressures rise – the good big titans will let the fair Carmen Electra ring in a New Year – Nay, a New Decade even – of compromise and reconciliation, with high fees for us and high profits for them And, that a la carte thing will just go away again – it’s soooo….eeeewwww – French. Fortunately, my NYE party tuned to a Spanish Channel and played music over it- Spanish and otherwise.
And, this was the first year I was going to watch American Idol, because Ellen DeGeneres is on it. Oh well, Fox will loose my advertising dollar(s).
Personally I stopped subscribing to cable TV in 2006, I was tired of being forced to pay for stations that I would never watch. And to recieve stations that do interest me, meant having to upgrade to a package where I would am spend nearly $200.00 per month.
Why don’t the cable companies allow consumers to pick and choose the channels for a personalized package. Price each channel as a seperate item. Maybe then we might see quality programing.
Until then I will remain a rabbit ear household.
@ Amp…
You are correct, sir! It’s just about 10 AM PST on 1 January, and…what’s this? Fox is still on?! Oh thank goodness, I was s-o-o-o worried. Utter BS, a brilliant marketing campaign. As Amp states, “…compromise and reconciliation, with high fees for us and high profits for them And, that a la carte thing will just go away again.” Viva La Free Internet!
Isn’t this the definition of a pissing contest between skunks?
Couldn’t have said it better. What a load of crap. Wait until someone finally figures out how to create a pristine streaming experience on the Inernet. These platforms will become as irrelevant as newspapers and the people will finally take back the airwaves.
Ah yes, it doesn’t cost anything to create “TV/Movie-Quality” programming. How do you really think these shows get made? You want free progamming…keep your youtube.
Really? That the best you have? TV/Movie quality programming? Why do you think I’m talking about anything different? A true internet experience, one that mirrors your experience on whatever television you view, will allow for entrepreneurial money to come in to the medium because they’ll be able to create the only thing of value, library assets. If we’re lucky, that money will allow artists to create television on their own terms. I’m not talking about user generated, You Tube content, I’m talking about premium content with roduction values to match those you’re used to. The difference will be the stifling over management of networks will be a thing of the past and when I talk about the people taking back the airwaves, I’m talking about a freedom of expression that’s not managed into oblivion, nor derivative to the extent that everything looks the same and has the same storytelling style. Aren’t you bored yet?
I have TWC in the Dallas area, and I will be switching providers immediately if they drop these channels. I am not a right wing nut job, but someone loves football and American Idol.
I am all for standing up on principal, but this is not the best move for TWC. With so many options (FIOS, Satelite & Other Cable), people will drop them and switch.
I do not feel sorry for one corporate giant over another. They (TWC) are not content creators and therefore must find a 21st century business model to stay alive.
Shocking… what a total surprise… who’d've thought they’d strike a deal at the very last minute. CRAZY!
Two mega-corporations playing chicken? Heck, that NEVER happens!
Commentators and news orgs. following it like it’s an ACTUAL NEWS STORY? Unbelievable!
Well, it’s after 8 PM PST and what a surprise! There was never even a nanosecond of disruption. As previously posted, Amp was correct and is truly a genius. What a sham…oh, and you can add the letter “e” to that as well, as in none possessed by either media octopus.
Peace in our time
I wonder if TWC is gonna pass the cost down and raise our rates on channels I don’t even watch.
If Congress wanted to do something the country might appreciate… Why not try something as simple as passing a law that says consumers can pick just the channels they actually want ala carte. I mean, why am I paying for Telemundo? I don’t speak Spanish.
Like – I said, “Anything can happen!”
Something else not being discussed is how this is also a product of the transference of Television from Analog broadcast via the airwaves to the digital signal. No cable company or satalite company could prevent the signal from being recieved by the general public if they had a regular television set in the old days. The signals would have been broadcast directly to the airwaves from the FOX outlets, paid for by multimillions of dollars generated by advertizing, hence the term FREE TV… now. The public is held hostage by cable, internet and satelite delivery systems. Now we are paying for our free tv.
Reply to Raymond Forchion
You can still get digital TV over-the-air. In fact, it’s better than ever (and possibly better than the same station on cable or satellite if they re-compress the signal).
If the broadcast networks push too far on retransmission compensation and the cable and satellite companies pass on those costs to consumers, we may find a large number of households going back to an antenna on the roof, and the FCC may decide that households can “opt out” of paying for OTA networks, leading us inevitably to a la carte pricing.
The real story here should have been how would Warner Bros. sue FX for not showing the end final episodes of Nip/Tuck! The fact that no one ever covered the real story as usual is amazing!!
In the entertainment business, the hits have always subsidized the flops, and bundling of cable channels is just an extension of that. To get ESPN, you have to take ABC Family. It’s a way for content producers to keep competitors out by tying up channel space, as well as an outlet for cheaply produced programming and infomercials. A la carte cable pricing would shake the television industry to its very foundation by opening cable channels to innovators and startups — it would introduce real competition. That’s why I’m guessing it will never happen. They’ve never liked competition in television-land.
I think we need to make a distinction between “bundling” and what is more accurately called “cross-collateralization.” The latter is the amortization of costs within a single entity, whereas the former is, in this case, forcing cable subscribers to buy unwanted channels from disparate companies. This is akin to block booking, a practice that was outlawed in motion picture distribution by the 1948 Paramount Consent Decree.
Nobody dares bring similar anti-trust action against the cable industry for the very reasons cited. There have, indeed, been independent start-up channels over the past few years, but they cannot easily get position on the more attractive lower tiers of cable menus. And that’s exactly why we have so many of the same networks — Discovery, HBO, Showtime, MTV, Cinemax, Starz, Home Shopping, etc., ad nauseum — simply shuffling the same programs from one channel to another like a pig passenger taking up three seats on an airplane.
Many argue that ala carte would remove the basic subscriber safety net that supports less popular channels, penalizing people with esoteric tastes, so it’s a good thing they’re bundled. Having worked for those less popular channels, I can tell you that that’s a very real fear. A pragmatic solution, however, might be to group channels semantically so that, for example, people who want Bravo don’t have to take ESPN, but they can have A&E, and people who want ESPN can get Spike instead of Lifetime.
Can you say “fat chance”?
The economic model is ideally a balance between sustaining a channel that doesn’t appeal to everyone, but does appeal to some, and making everyone pay for channels that not everyone wants, but in which the cable provider may have an interest. As writer-publisher Roger Price once said, “If everybody doesn’t want it, then nobody can have it.”
I live in New Jersey and I applaud CableVision for standing up to HGTV and The Food Network. Any increase the cable provider pays will be passed on to the customers.
Way to go CableVision.
after paying 170 a month to have my 2 favorite channels taken off the air i guess it’s time to switch. cablevision makes so much money if dolan wouldn’t use it for all of his other projects he’d show profit. why buy newsday when you get cablevision and visa- versa.
I can’t believe the greed of Rupert and company- We see his influence in the Wall Street Journal and who really cares about Fox? No one certainly cares about the cable companies and the way they have been sticking it to their customers. We have to stop this bull and just start paying for channels we watch and except for football I don’t watch Fox at all. No wonder we are all looking for the internet as the way out from under this pack of dogs.
Carson, you get the good with the bad with Fox…bad news channels, and good sports weekly in all arenas. So you cant get just football without the bad news doofus so make up your mind. Also, the internet is only free for so long. Get ready, then you’ll be whining about that too i guess…
I hate the way cable companies sale channel packages to consumers. Just to get the “Science Channel” or “BBC America” I have to pay for a specific channel package that contains many channels I never watch. I wish I could order just the channels I watch. That way, if Fox or any other channel wanted to raise their rates I could decide if it was worth it or not. I also hate the idea that I am financially supporting some channels that I find odious.
Oh stop all the whining.
1. I think it’s time for FCC to look into Cable, Satellite and Content Providers and put in place some protections for consumers. I don’t see anyone in any of those industries standing in the unemployment lines.
2. TWC should have told Fox “go ahead, cut off your feeds to us…while you’re at it, turn off FNC and FBN, too.”
TWC is the worst cable organization there is out there. They have the worst customer support over ANYBODY
TWC will always be second rate until they even the H.D. playing field with Directv. How can you only offer 20 something H.D. channels in this day and time??? No wonder Directv is the fastest growing t.v. provider out there. Who wants to watch t.v. in standard def??? NOT ME!
this is funny to me cuse i have time warner and be4 this started they sent us a notice in the mail stating their rates r going up after Feb 1 then when i had seen what was going between fox and tw and read that tw didnt want to charge that 1.00 to their customers but yet their raising their rates so now whatever they agreed on the customers will be paying even more but yet the programing really sucks there’s nothing i like the stuff i like i would have to pay for so i have over 100 or more channels that i pay for and nothing to watch HBO and CINEMAX show the same movies over and over again the movies i want to see r on ppv my bill is over 200.00 a month enough is enough already
Without FNC it would be a state run pravda news field…FNC is hardly right wing…more like middle left which is so jarring to the obama line that it seems right wing….sheep need to hear, read and see the same line…..how amusing that libs scream about FNC.
To Santayana, i think you comparison to those who are overweight was done in very bad taste. I’m 6′1″, I bench 360 lbs. I squat 525 lbs. i’m a big boy (which is why i don’t fly) and i’m always suprised at the bigotry i see against those who don’t fit a body image, no matter the image. so get a life and worry about yourself rather than others.
I personally wrote a email to twc and told them that i didn’t care if they dropped fox as long as they didn’t raise my rates. To be honest i don’t watch much tv anymore. it’s gotten stupid. I would rather spend my time online getting content that educates and informs rather than turning my brain off.
As a side note, back in the 80’s my father took an electronics class (yeah he got the degree along with a few other degrees) and built a receiver and antenna for HBO when it was broadcast over the airwaves. A few years later they began to encrypt the signal (and yes he built a decryption unit) so people couldn’t get it. There were a lot of lawsuits then. The idea of what’s put out on the air belong to the public was squashed then. We no longer own the airwaves.
Dear DavidM: go back and read what I wrote without being so defensive. I neither said nor implied overweight or any synonym. “Pig,” as used, means “selfish,” which is exactly what I’d call anyone who lifts the armrests on a row of airline seats and lays down, preventing others from sitting there. The analogy to networks warehousing channels is a precise one.
I was fine with losing all the Fox channels and actually was hoping it would happen. I would have missed FX, but I could have waited until next year to rent “Rescue Me” and “Damages.” FNC is an abomination as is American Idol. And I wouldn’t watch sports if I was paid to do it. If my cable bill goes up so that these channels can stay on TWC I will be sorely pissed! I agree. If I could pay for what I watch: BBC-America and Food Network (which I only put on because there’s nothing else to watch on any of the channels) with the option of paying for HBO, I would be a happy camper.
Why is it that the cable companies always come away from these disputes with a black eye and less customers? The FCC already has oversight over cable, but what about these cable channels? They’re the ones demanding higher and higher fees year after year. When does it end? Is ESPN worth $3+dollars a month? Really? To whom? Does FOX pay anyone for the bandwidth to broadcast their channel? That answer would be NO. They get it free from the government. If they’re allowed to charge for their broadcasts, why aren’t they made to pay for the transmission of their signals? The old law giving networks free access to bandwidth needs to be changed in order to level the playing field. Then we’ll see how they feel. At best these network station executives are opportunitists, and at worst, extortionists. I say enough is enough.