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UNHAPPY NEW YEAR! Time Warner Cable To Lose Viacom's MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon & Comedy Central In NY, LA, EverywhereUPDATE (keep refreshing for breaking news): What an awful way to ring in 2009. It turns out that Viacom claims it has been trying to negotiate a "fair" renewal of its prized cable channels for months and months, but reputedly Time Warner Cable has been unresponsive and "unreasonable" so talks have stalled. The nation's 2nd largest cable system operator, in turn, claims Viacom is asking for "exorbitant" increases in carriage fees which would have to be passed along to the customer. So now this fight between the two Big Media giants will hurt cable viewers. At 12:01 AM on January 1st, just after the ball drops in Time Square, Time Warner Cable's 13.3 million subscribers will lose 19 Viacom channels. The howling starts here, especially by parents home for the holidays with children who won't have access to their favorite shows like SpongeBob Squarepants and Dora The Explorer, and tweens/teens wanting to see new episodes of those new unreality Reality TV series The City and Bromance, and twentysomethings and older who get their news from The Daily Show With Jon Stewart or The Colbert Report.This affects all U.S. Time Warner cable subscribers including those in New York and Los Angeles. Alex Dudley, a vice president at Time Warner Cable, the nation's second-largest cable operator, is telling reporters that the dispute with Viacom "is that they have asked for an exorbitant increase in their carriage fees and their network ratings are sagging. Basically we're trying to hold the line for our customer." Time Warner Cable claims Viacom has asked for fee increases of between 22% and 36% per channel, but Sumner Redstone's company maintains the increases would cost less than $.25 a month for the package of channels per subscriber who spend a fifth of total TV time watching Viacom shows but its fees make up less than 2.5% of the Time Warner cable bill. (Sports channels are paid the biggest cable premium). But Time Warner Cable also is complaining that Viacom's popular shows are rerun on Web sites where Viacom collects advertising revenue that it does not share with Time Warner. On the other hand, Viacom has staked much of its revenue-growth prospects on squeezing higher carriage rates out of its cable and satellite affiliates despite an ad slowdown and weaker ratings.Such negotiation battles between cable networks and cable system operators have happened before and lasted merely hours. In 2004, for example, Viacom's cable channels disappeared from EchoStar's Dish Network for two days while both sides fought over the terms of a new contract. And Time Warner blocked ABC from its cable systems in New York during a breakdown in contract negotiations with parent company Disney. So this one will either end fast or go on forever. It probably will depend on how many subscribers start flooding Time Warner Cable with obscene calls. Viacom has already started a hardball campaign to "Call Time Warner Cable and say 'NO' " starring The Hills and South Park.This is Viacom's just issued statement:QuoteThis move by Time Warner Cable to force such channels as Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV off the air is another example of a cable company overreaching for profit at the expense of its viewers. The renewal we are seeking is reasonable and modest relative to the profits TWC enjoys from our networks. We have asked for an increase of less than 25 cents per month, per subscriber, which adds up to less than a penny per day for all 19 of MTV Networks’ channels. We make this request because TWC has so greatly undervalued our channels for so long. Americans spend more than 20% of their TV viewing time watching our networks, yet our fees amount to less than 2.5% of what Time Warner generates from their average customer.Throughout the country, we have negotiated equitable license agreement renewals, or are in the final stages of renewals, with virtually every cable and satellite carrier. Nevertheless, Time Warner Cable has dismissed our efforts at a fair compromise and has effectively chosen to deny its customers some of the most popular TV shows on the air.As a result, we are sorry to say that for Time Warner Cable customers our networks will go dark as of 12:01 on January 1st, denying Time Warner customers shows like Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and The Hills.Ultimately, however, if Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and the rest of our programming is discontinued – over less than a penny per day - we believe viewers will see this behavior by their cable company as outrageous. Time Warner Cable subscribers who are being handed a January 1st $3 monthly increase in Raleigh, Orange County, Los Angeles, and New York City are simultaneously facing the removal of beloved shows across 19 channels.We find it a shame that Time Warner Cable remains unreasonable at this time. We hope its leadership will have a change of heart and will seek to negotiate a fair renewal agreement.
This move by Time Warner Cable to force such channels as Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV off the air is another example of a cable company overreaching for profit at the expense of its viewers. The renewal we are seeking is reasonable and modest relative to the profits TWC enjoys from our networks. We have asked for an increase of less than 25 cents per month, per subscriber, which adds up to less than a penny per day for all 19 of MTV Networks’ channels. We make this request because TWC has so greatly undervalued our channels for so long. Americans spend more than 20% of their TV viewing time watching our networks, yet our fees amount to less than 2.5% of what Time Warner generates from their average customer.Throughout the country, we have negotiated equitable license agreement renewals, or are in the final stages of renewals, with virtually every cable and satellite carrier. Nevertheless, Time Warner Cable has dismissed our efforts at a fair compromise and has effectively chosen to deny its customers some of the most popular TV shows on the air.As a result, we are sorry to say that for Time Warner Cable customers our networks will go dark as of 12:01 on January 1st, denying Time Warner customers shows like Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and The Hills.Ultimately, however, if Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and the rest of our programming is discontinued – over less than a penny per day - we believe viewers will see this behavior by their cable company as outrageous. Time Warner Cable subscribers who are being handed a January 1st $3 monthly increase in Raleigh, Orange County, Los Angeles, and New York City are simultaneously facing the removal of beloved shows across 19 channels.We find it a shame that Time Warner Cable remains unreasonable at this time. We hope its leadership will have a change of heart and will seek to negotiate a fair renewal agreement.
I too have TW, but I don't really watch the channels that are going away except comedy central and I don't watch that one very often.
I won't miss one of them. ComedyCentral posts most of their stuff online anyway. Wake me up when they dump AMC, Discovery Channel, or Spike TV.
Spike is one .
Once in a while Spike will havea movie on worth seeing, but I won't miss it if falls off of the TW lineup.
I got to watch Hunt For Red October on AMC the other week. I was tickled when someone mentioned it today.
I do watch some Comedy Central. Thankfully they don't own Cartoon Network.
I used to watch the Cartoon Network until they dropped Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
Family Guy, Robot Chicken and Aqua Teen keep me addicted to it. I also like Moral Orel.
Someone blinked. Time warners still carrying Viacom channels.
Time Warner and Viacom Reach Agreement on Cable Shows There was good news in the early hours of Thursday for small children in New York, Los Angeles and other large cities: the “SpongeBob†blackout had been avoided.The ball had already dropped in Times Square, but MTV Networks and Time Warner Cable kept talking into the early new year and concluded a deal in principle that ensured that shows like “SpongeBob SquarePants†and “The Colbert Report†would still be available to the 13.3 million subscribers to the Time Warner Cable service.The final terms, which were not disclosed, will be worked out in talks in the next few days, an executive at Viacom, the parent of MTV, said.The two sides had faced a deadline of midnight to renew the contract under which Time Warner pays MTV a rights fee for its 20 cable networks, which include MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, VH1, TV Land, BET and Spike.Viacom demanded an increase of about 23 cents per subscriber to cover its full portfolio of channels, under a threat that it would remove all 20 networks from Time Warner’s systems. Viacom’s chief executive, Philippe P. Dauman, said the increase was justified because MTV Networks had been underpriced compared with other cable networks with fewer viewers. -snip-
