On December 31, the contract that allows Time Warner Cable to air Fox and all of its stations will expire. After nine months of negotiations, the two companies still haven’t agreed on a contract. The debate is over how much money Time Warner should give Fox for allowing it to carry the network’s signals. Fox wants $1 per subscriber. Time Warner wants to pay half that.
Both companies have launched PR campaigns blasting the other and warning of the potential catastrophes of failure. Time Warner says that the extra charge will be passed on to the customer. Fox is warning that if an agreement isn’t reached, viewers will miss precious NFL games and the even more precious American Idol premiere. It definitely sounds like Fox has the stronger case here (what’s 50 cents more when you’re already paying $120?), but we can’t help but wonder if it wouldn’t have more success reminding people that no agreement means no more Saturday nights of Cops and America’s Most Wanted. That would be worth writing a letter about.
Fox says Time Warner Cable may drop Fox TV shows [Reuters]
