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VH1, VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul, CMT, MTV, MTV 2, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV Tr3s, Comedy Central, Logo, Palladia, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nick 2, Nicktoons, Spike, The N and TV Land are all channels that will no longer be apart of your tv viewing if you are a customer of Time Warner Cable as of 12:01am January 01, 2009. The states ringing in the new year facing this blackout are New York, the Carolinas, Ohio, Southern California and Texas, if Viacom Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. can not come to some agreement regarding a cost increase.

According to Time Warner, Viacom is demanding $39 million on top of the nearly $300 million already paid to them annually. Time Warner's Chief Executive, Glenn Britt, called the 12% increase "extortion and outrageous given the recession". A spokesman for Time Warner, Alex Dudley, stated "They never had any intention of settling this or negotiating in good faith" in regards to the support Viacom sought through use of the media. There was newspaper ads showing "Dora the Explorer" crying about the removal of her show as well as many other popular kids shows being removed from Time Warner's channel line up. There was also tv ads pointing fingers at Time Warner for the forthcoming blackout. Dudley went on to say "the advertising campaign was a sign that Viacom had been preparing for a damaging shutdown".

Viacom's side of the arguement, according to spokeswoman, Kelly McAndrew, is that one fifth of television viewing time,by Americans, is spent watching Viacom stations, yet only make up less than 2.5% of the Time Warner cable bill fees. Viacom's channels had been "underpriced relative to their peers." says analyst Michael Nathanson with Bernstein Research. Networks like those ran by The Walt Disney Co., News Corp.'s Fox, Discovery Communications Inc. as well as Time Warner's very own Turner Broadcasting System all receive about a 65% higher daily licensing fee, when compared to Viacom despite the rating rankings. McAndrew also disputed the figures claimed by Time Warner, saying that it was really closer to less than a penny a day per subscriber.

Time Warner's answer to the households that will host empty channels come Thursday morning? They will "make available a video teaching people how to hook their computers up to the TV to watch online shows". {As a customer as well as a mother of three, to me that is not a tolerable solution, especially considering how much I pay for my cable bill in the first place. I am much more willing to pay the 23cents a month to get the channels I want, but then again I was never asked for my say on this issue.} 

This would be the second dispute and potential loss of channels for Time Warner in less than 3 months. Back in October there was disagreement with LIN TV Corp which is home to local channels such as CBS, CW, FOX, and NBC. Alot of customers were not happy losing such important channels as those then, even if it was only for a few weeks. This time around if the channels fall into abyss, alot more unhappiness will follow. As of Wednesday morning, Time Warner's stock shares fell 31cents, or 1.4 percent, to $21.45 while Viacom's rose 88cents, or 4.5 percent, to close at $20.12. Time Warner is going up against one if not thee largest cable programmer there is, or otherwise known as a monopoly. 

***update***

It seems some sort of deal has been reached, though the details are still unclear. As the midnight hour passed and Viacom channels were still airing, it seemed that a deal was in the works. I, for one, am very happy I still have my Viacom channels, however what I don't appreciate, as a customer, is that Time Warner waited till just beyond the last minute to finally agree to the demands of Viacom, that in my opinion didnt sound so outrageous in the first place.

 ~jeniPHer

By Jenipher