19 Popular Channels Could Go Black
If you’re a television lover, you may be in for quite a surprise come New Year’s morning.
CENTRAL OHIO— Fans of some popular cable entertainment will not have to give up their tv fix now that 2009 is underway.
NBC 4’s Tom Brockman reported with the FAST FACTS. Time Warner Cable says it’s reached deal with
Viacom to avoid blackout of 19 cable channels. The agreement came after Viacom, the content provider, began to alert viewers to the potential problem.
Viacom began running crawls at the bottom of those channels Wednesday morning, warning viewers they were going off the air.
Viacom officials have asked for a fee increase of between 22 and 36 percent, which they said would equal $.23 cents a month per subscriber and adds up to nearly $36 million.
Time Warner disagreed with the increase and said it would have to pass the cost along to you, the customer.
“It’s kind of crazy. I’m going to miss some of those channels if they go away,“ Time Warner customer Donald Westenberger said.
Westenberger said he watches Comedy Central nearly every day.
Terms of the agreement have not yet been disclosed.
Viacom justified its request by saying Americans spend a fifth of their time watching Viacom shows, but fees amount to less than 2.5 percent of what Time Warner generates from its average customer..
If an agreement isn’t reached, the channels will go black at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009.
Time Warner representatives said they are working to come to an agreement prior to midnight but it’s unclear if that will happen.
Stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com for the latest information in this developing story.
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Reader Reactions
AIRWOLF AIRWOLF AIRWOLF
if you go there right now EMERGENCY is on
IT IS ON CHANNEL 80 THEY HAVE NBC4 WEATHER ON THERE SOMETIMES
BRONCODAN i dont work at time warner i just wanted to know what channel the RTN network was on i couldnt find it by the way
Hey since you work at cable is there any chance i could get a guide for rtn so i can find outwhat is on RTN
it is on channel 80 it is called RTN I went to their website and nothing is there but the channel is on 80 good luck
BRONCODAN i have been with time warner for 4 years if this channel you found is true what channel is it and do they have it for the mid ohio
Hey i am glad that for now the problem,s with tw are settled but there is another problem and that is the new cable channel called RTN. This is a new channel for us but it has been around for awhile all across the country but was recently bought by Luken Communications, LLC. This station has a lot of great shows like ADAM-12 DRAGNET and EMERGENCY and my favorite AIRWOLF which i got to wacth last night twice. i just wander if this new channel will cost us or we will get it free. Well maybe i should ask how long will this station stick around because i would,nt want to get my hopes up and then get let down.
Well to tellyou the truth i have had those problems too. my box loxks up all the time and sometimes i have to reboot my dvr plus i have had to replace them several times but i will stick with time warner for now. I wo,nt rule out directtv or wow cable but i will never get at@t i am sick of them calling wanting me to take this and that a dozen things that i do not want and if you get them they will want you to get a million different things so screw them. i love the digital cable and my phone service through tw so i will stick with tw for awhile
hey i do,nt know if anyone knows but the channels that were supposed to be off at midnight are on now. i am watching nick at nite. George lopex is on and i just watched Home Improvemnt so i wander if the problem with viacom was settled? Oh well i am not complaining after the last two debacles i am glad i do,nt have to wait or pay to see something i am already paying for. i hope this does,nt evolve into something that may give pay-per-view a whole new meaning.
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