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
What a shame that in Delaware, our choices are Time Warner Cable, or sattelite. Does anyone know of another cable provider in the Delaware area? Direct TV looks very nice again, we left TWC for similar issues before. I agree, TWC is a bully, why cant they get along with anyone? BTN, customers were angry, this is the straw that will break their back I hope. Its always nice to be pushed around by companies you pay an arm and a leg to…. listen up TWC!
i live in an apartment complex that only provides time warner cable as an option, i will pay $0.23 to get the channels that are supposed to come with basic cable. this is ridiculous, when will time warner wake up?
As bad as I would hate to lose these channels, I say “It’s about time someone stood up to the bully tactics” Viacom is using. That is why they run those messages at the bottom of the screen warning on the dangers if Time Warner does not pay up! It is black mail pure and simple. We could make every channel a pay per view event, but I don’t think you would like that either. I know I would not!
I don’t know about anyone else but in these days of banking and automakers bailouts, I’m glad to see someone standing up and saying enough is enough! Thanks Time Warner.
Changing cable tv provider? What an idea… I’ve been thinking of doing that since they changed to the Mystro os for their boxes awhile back. Just got an updated cable box and now this. I’m not about to stand by and loose channels, roadrunner runs slower than ever and still pay their outragous prices. Didn’t they have a price increase recently anyway? My wife says… her parents grew up without tv she can live without it too. There are many good books to read and lots of places to see. Why sit around looking at a blank screen.
My family like to wacth the channels that Time Warner might let go black. Their waiting to the last minute to make a deal with MTV is getting old. WE just went thru this with the WHO channel and the Big Ten channel.If this last any lentgh of time we will be going to the Dish Network.WE want to wacth the show we want.
Time Warner just can’t seem to get along with anyone it seems every year Time Warner is arguing with someone for the last two years it was the BTN. When did companies stop listening to its customers? Shouldn’t we have the choice wheather we want these channels or not. This is getting rediculous
I have been considering switching providers. ATT U-verse looks good, but switching is a hassle. However, if Time-Warner pulls these channels, I’m switching. We’ve had this baloney before with the Big Ten Network. Enough is enough.
This is getting a little ridiculous. Every time these places are told no they throw their little fits. Why don’t we have the option to pay for the channels we want? They seem to want to dictate what they are going to provide us. Will we get a price adjustment for the missing channels? I doubt it at all. So they are going to get the same cost for less channels. How is that Fair. Wish I had more options for a cable provider.
these 19 channels are a part of BASIC cable. I will be calling time warner to demand a 20% discount on my cable bill for leaving without 19 of our BASIC channels! not to mention, mornings without blues clues? how will I ever get dressed!
TV without SpongeBob? What a wonderful idea! Too bad I have AT&T.
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