Unbelievable, my cable service can no longer carry CBS...

[Godhumor]

Here in Western NY the local CBS affiliate has pulled all programming from Time Warner cable after refusing to agree on a new contract. Contacting either party about watching football tomorrow on TV (as opposed to the net) gave me the following options: Switch to DirecTV, watch on rabbit ears, find a bar. Super.

[mcctatas]

1. Mine stopped carrying FOX...

no Packer game tomorrow!

[coyotespaw]

6. You say that like it's a bad thing

:P

[mcctatas]

7. But the Packers....

It's been a whole week since I watched them lose! ;)

[From The Ashes]

2. I'm not sure what's going on...

...but yours is the third story I've heard about TWC and local affiliates. Something's afoot for sure.

[Blue Diadem]

4. This page explains it:

http://www.timewarnercable.com/MidOhio/programming/lintv.html

snip:
Without express permission, Time Warner Cable cannot legally provide these stations to its cable customers. In exchange for that permission, the stations are demanding that Time Warner Cable customers pay a monthly fee to watch programming that is free simply by using an antenna. Time Warner Cable believes that they are fairly and adequately compensated with the clear reception and extended advertising audience that they enjoy by being on Time Warner Cable's channel lineup.

[From The Ashes]

11. Yes...

That's a standard practice. Cable companies negotiate rebroadcasting rights all the time. What's curious is: why all of a sudden is it getting hard to come to terms with local stations?

Here in San Antonio, our local ABC affiliate has been negotiating with TWC for over a year for rebroadcast rights. They've recently take to the airwaves complaining that TWC won't come to an agreement.

In Austin, it's the NBC affiliate. http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2008/09/29/daily50.html

[Blue Diadem]

3. No more local fox on our TW. There was quite a list that may

end up the same way. I was surprised to read the article saying if contract negotiations failed, even Showtime/MC would be gone. My DH was worried about Fox Sports Ohio because that's on the list as well.

This comes directly from TW's website for my area:

The Toledo Blade

Time Warner Cable’s agreements with programmers to carry their services routinely expire from time to time. We are usually able to obtain renewals or extensions of such agreements, and carriage of programming services is discontinued only in rare circumstances. The following agreements with programmers are due to expire soon, and we may be required to cease carriage of one or more of these services in the near future.

I-Life, WCMH, WANE, WUPW, MOJO, NHL Network, NBA TV, Outdoor Channel, Fuel TV, Great American Country, Showtime/The Movie Channel, Sci-Fi Channel, Game Show Network, WISE, WPTA, WEWS, all Starz/Encore channels, Fox Sports Net Ohio, Sleuth, USA, Universal HD, Inspiration Network, Flix, Oxygen On Demand, and BBC On Demand.


--------------------------------------

[pokerfan]

5. Fox pulled its channel from Time-Warner in North Idaho

which is pretty darned ironic.

[mwooldri]

8. It'll get put back soon.

Why? TW Cable carries too much clout.

51% of households have cable, 26% have satellite. Curiously 1% have both. (source http://blogs.zdnet.com/ITFacts/?p=9778 )

LIN TV have just lost half their target market in areas where Time Warner Cable is the main cable company, and not just for your West NY CBS and CW affiliate... other LIN-TV areas are affected too.

But then contract is a little more complex than that. Time Warner (and other cable companies) inserts advertising in the programming breaks targeted at their customers, which get seen only by the cable viewing audience. The broadcast company is hard done by, because advertising that would normally be seen by their viewers aren't - depriving them of revenue. They can rightly go after the cable companies and ask for compensation. That's where the compensation battle went. If Time Warner just supplied a clean feed to its customers then that's one thing but to insert ads is another. Mind you cable companies don't insert ads on all broadcast stations, just where they can.

Time Warner and ABC had issues back in 2000, and they've had issues with Sinclair in my local area. Time Warner play hardball with carriage...

Mark.

[Left Is Write]

9. We've had DirecTV for ten years with very few complaints.

In fact, it was this weekend, ten years ago, that Mr. LIW went down to Best Buy and bought the equipment to get me set up (I was recovering from a surgery, and he wanted me to be able to watch my old black and white game shows).

We've had the NFL Sunday Ticket for eight years, because we moved to Idaho and want to watch all the Vikings games. The cost of the Sunday Ticket keeps going up every year, which ticks me off a little, but Mr. LIW asks for very little in the way of entertainment expenditures, and he loves his football.

See what kind of a deal you can get for DirecTV - maybe it's a switch you'll want to make.

[Godhumor]

10. FIOS TV hits my neighborhood in the next month or two; I've been planning to switch to that

Already have FIOS internet and love it.