Time Warner Cable CEO & President Glenn Britt says don't blame him, blame sliding advertising and falling ratings for
Viacom's lost revenue and subsequent Scrooge-style "extortion" of TWC customers to
keep MTV Networks on after the ball drops tonight. Beyond the outrageous claim that viewers might be tuning away from
My Super Sweet 16 marathons, Britt claims that "penny per subscriber per day" adds up to an unreasonable $39 million, while TWC nobly attempts to keep negotiations going on behalf of its customers. Oddly we find it hard to view either side as thinking of the customer first in this slapfight, but if we miss a single episode of
Bromance before things are resolved, there will be hell to pay.
[Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
air12ick @ Dec 31st 2008 5:05PM
Only issue I have with this is how Viacom is using all of their channels as a way to voice their opinion on the matter. They are forcing TWC and BrightHouse networks customers to call their respective operator. At the same time those customers should be knocking down Viacom's doors for attempting to raise the rates on the cable companies. The only reason why our cable bill is so high is because of this kind of act.
Jason @ Dec 31st 2008 5:27PM
My daughter is going to be pissed in the morning when she finds that Nick is gone. And the first UFC Fight night i miss b/c of this shit is going to get my TWC service cancelled.
Both sides are at an equal fault here. TWC should just pony up. They can afford it. What they CANT afford is the numerous cancellations this will cause.
DirectTV here i come.
chris @ Dec 31st 2008 5:56PM
If the going rate for 20 channels is $4.00 a year, then please keep having these evil companies force the cable companies to only charge me a total of about $120 a year for content. I'm pretty sure my cable bill is a lot more than $10 a month.
I'm sorry, but as a consumer I have no issue paying an extra quarter for in my bill every month. TWC is losing a customer tomorrow if these channels are gone.
JD @ Jan 1st 2009 12:14AM
I guess you're not a TWC Customer. What TWC isn't talking about it a $3.00 increase that most of their customers are getting tomorrow because TWC wants more money. Less than 25 cents, TWC needs to shut up and pay it.
air12ick @ Jan 1st 2009 6:54PM
I actually was trying to say is, if you call your cable company about this issue, we, the consumer, should also call the media network companies at the same time. The point here is don't just blame the cable company, but also blame the people behind the channels we get.
cwj @ Dec 31st 2008 5:21PM
And the scroll almost worked..until I realized I can just go to the respective websites and get much of the same content for free.
Without Kappa Mikey, maybe I can get some work done.
deddyluger @ Dec 31st 2008 5:41PM
The only channel I really would be disappointed in losing is comedy central(maybe spike). The other channels are pretty much garbage and I would not lose sleep over them.
m3nphls @ Dec 31st 2008 6:18PM
Well....FiOS wiring should be done by Q1 2009 in my buildings....and I'll be cancelling cable tv in the meantime...
Right now with TWC TV + Internet + HBO i'm paying about $126/month and with FiOS 20/20 + TV and all movie channels it ends up cheaper than cable....so yea, screw you TWC!!
Brad Clarke @ Dec 31st 2008 10:57PM
I just Subscribe to Directv, But The earliest they can install is Jan 14th. Ughh guess its to more weeks with ShitWarner cable, and tehre over compressed channels.
*Albany, New York Subscriber
Fred @ Jan 1st 2009 12:53AM
ATT U-Verse, here I come.
Fred @ Jan 1st 2009 2:08AM
Well their goes that, i guess they have agreed, so all of this crap, for nothing.