Fox, Time Warner Cable reach agreement in principle
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By Kyle Ocker
Sprint Cup Series beat reporter
Nearly a day after Fox was set to pull the plug on its programming on Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks channel lineups, the two sides announced that they have reached an agreement in principle on Friday night an hour before the Sugar Bowl kickoff.
“We’re pleased that, after months of negotiations, we were able to reach a fair agreement with Time Warner Cable — one that recognizes the value of our programming,” News Corporation’s deputy chairman, president and COO Chase Careysaid in a joint statement with Time Warner Cable.
Time Warner Cable’s CEO, president and chairman Glenn Britt continued to say, “We’re happy to have reached a reasonable deal with no disruption in programming for our customers.”
Despite the intense negotiations and heavy negative advertisement campaigns each company employed against each other, customers on both cable companies did not live without their Fox programming the entire time.
Fox’s parent company News Corp. threatened that it would take its channels off of Time Warner’s and Bright House’s lineups if a deal was not reached. However, Time Warner Cable, which also operates Bright House, said that it would continue to air its programming by retransmitting their signals from over-the-air and fiber optics, instead of using a satellite to receive Fox’s feed.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Fox was rumored to have requested one-dollar per subscriber for each of their channels. Time Warner Cable’s reported counter-offer was 30-cents per subscriber.
UPDATE 4 (1/01/10 at 5:39 p.m. ET): According to the Wall Street Journal the two sides are nearing an agreement that should be completed by tonight to avoid a blackout of Fox stations on Time Warner and Bright House Cable. The Journal is citing sources who are “familiar with the matter.” The paper is owned by News Corp., which is also the parent company of Fox.
UPDATE 3 (1/01/10 at 3:50 p.m. ET): Fox and Time Warner Cable have extended their deadline, again. The new deadline is 6 p.m. ET. Both sides hope to reach a deal before the 8:30 p.m. ET start of tonight’s college football bowl game (The Sugar Bowl).
UPDATE 2 (1/01/10 at 1:10 p.m. ET): Fox channels are still available on Time Warner Cable’s channel lineup as of now. Both companies continue to negotiate.
UPDATE 1 (12/31/09 at 11:52 p.m. ET): Time Warner Cable and Fox have agreed to a three-hour extension past their original midnight deadline. The new agreement moves a deadline for a new agreement to 3 a.m. ET.
With just a few hours remaining before their current deal expires, the Federal Communications Commission released a statement urging Time Warner Cable to agree to a short-term deal with Fox to avoid over 14 million cable subscribers around the country from losing their Fox-owned stations.
“I have urged Fox and Time Warner Cable to agree to a temporary extension of carriage if they do not come to terms on a new carriage agreement today, in order to prevent disruption to their viewers,” FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement released on New Year’s Eve. “Companies shouldn’t force cable-watching football fans to scramble for other means of TV delivery on New Year’s weekend.”
The request for a short-term agreement comes just after Sinclair Broadcasting and Mediacom, America’s eighth-largest cable company, agreed to an eight-day extension to prevent Sinclair’s stations from being pulled from Mediacom’s cable system.
Sinclair owns local television affiliates from Fox, ABC, MyTv, The CW, CBS and NBC in over 58 markets, reaching 22 percent of televisions in the country.
“I commend Sinclair and Mediacom for agreeing to an eight-day extension of their retransmission consent agreement, which was set to expire tonight,” Genachowski said. “This extension, to midnight January 8, 2010, will avert the frustration that Mediacom customers would have experienced if Sinclair stations had ceased to be available over Mediacom systems at midnight tonight. It will give Sinclair and Mediacom additional time to resolve their negotiations successfully, as hundreds of other broadcasters and cable companies have done throughout the country, so that viewers will have uninterrupted access to popular broadcast programming.”
Time Warner Cable and Fox’s current agreement expires at midnight on Jan. 1. If an agreement is not reached, all of Fox’s national and regional networks, as well as many Fox-owned local stations will no longer be available on America’s largest cable provider. The two sides have been negotiating since this past summer to reach an agreement.
According to a website set up by Time Warner Cable, www.keeponfox.com, Fox is trying to increase their former rate by over 300 percent. Fox, however, denies this claim on their website, www.keepfoxon.com, saying, “Time Warner must be referring to one of their other negotiations, because 300% is off by a large multiple.”
“It’s unfortunate that Time Warner Cable has yet to offer us reasonable compensation for Fox’s programming, and regrettably, because of its decision, viewers may miss the Fox BCS games, the NFL on Fox, American Idol and more,” Fox added in a statement. “We sincerely hope Time Warner Cable reconsiders its position prior to the expiration of the agreement tonight and doesn’t deny its customers this marquee programming.”
Fox broadcasts many sporting events and some of America’s most watched TV shows on its nearly 20 TV networks and over a dozen local affiliates. In addition to NFL and BCS games, the broadcast giant offers MLB’s World Series and NASCAR’s Daytona 500, as well as TV hits American Idol and House, M.D.
Bright House Networks, a smaller cable company, is also in negotiations with Fox to prevent a loss in signal. Their contract also expires at midnight on New Year’s Day.
