Friday, August 2, 2013

Time Warner Cable Drops CBS in New York, L.A., Dallas; Showtime Dropped Too

CBS said Friday afternoon that it has failed to reach an agreement with Time Warner Cable by their 5 p.m. deadline and the cable company has dropped the No. 1 primetime network in New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas and several other markets.

Check out the network's two Friday press releases on the subject below as well as one from Showtime, which was also dropped:

CBS STATEMENT ON TIME WARNER CABLE ACTION

New York, N.Y. - August 2, 2013 - Effective 5:00 PM Eastern Time, Time Warner Cable has dropped CBS in New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas and several other markets. We deeply regret this ill-advised action, which is injurious not only to our many affected viewers, but also to Time Warner Cable itself. Throughout this process, Time Warner Cable has conducted negotiations in a combative and non-productive spirit, indulging in pointless brinksmanship and distorted public positioning - such as the fictional and ridiculous 600% increase CBS supposedly demanded - while maintaining antiquated positions no longer held by any other programming distributor in the business. CBS, for its part, is eager to make an agreement in line with the kind it has struck with every other cable, satellite and telco provider, and has continually sought reasonable term extensions to get that job done. This is the first time in its history that CBS has been dropped from a cable system. Time Warner Cable, on the other hand, has a long history of taking channels off the air - more than 50 in the last five years alone. It has also chosen to drop Showtime, which is owned by CBS, a move that is completely unnecessary and totally punitive to its subscribers.

What CBS seeks, and what we always have sought from the beginning, is fair compensation for the most-watched television network with the most popular content in the world. We will not accept less. We will not sign away rights not granted to others. We will not give up our channel position or any other asset by which our viewers identify us. We will also not be subjected to pointless maneuvers like a series of one-hour extensions and mini-drops that do nothing for either side but annoy our viewers. We hope and believe this period of darkness will be short and that we can all get back to the business of providing the best entertainment, news and sports to the Time Warner Cable customers we both serve.

TIME WARNER CABLE SUBSCRIBERS TO MISS MARQUEE CBS SPORTS NATIONAL AND LOCAL EVENTS BEGINNING SATURDAY, AUGUST 3

Viewers to Miss CBS Sports' Coverage of the World Golf Championships: Bridgestone Invitational as Tiger Woods Leads

Local Viewers in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas to Miss Full Slate of Pre-Season NFL Football as Well as Major League Baseball and Other Events


Due to the Time Warner Cable blackout, Time Warner Cable subscribers will be deprived of a variety of CBS Sports live golf coverage beginning on Saturday, August 3, including coverage of the World Golf Championships: Bridgestone Invitational, with Tiger Woods leading heading into third-round coverage.

Additionally, viewers will miss CBS Sports' coverage of the season's final major, the PGA Championship, beginning Thursday, August 8 and continuing through final-round coverage on Sunday, August 11.

CBS Sports will also broadcast the Wyndham Championship on Saturday, August 17 and Sunday, August 18.

In addition to missing all of the Network programming above, viewers in the three local markets affected by the Time Warner Cable Blackout will not have access to the following programming:

New York

· Friday, August 9 - New York Jets at Detroit Lions

· Thursday-Sunday, August 8-11 - PGA Championship

· Saturday, August 17 - New York Jets vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

· Saturday-Sunday, August 17-18 - PGA Tour Wyndam Championship

Los Angeles

· Monday-Tuesday, August 5-6 (KCAL 9) - Los Angeles Dodgers at St. Louis Cardinals

· Thursday, August 8 (CBS 2) - San Diego Chargers vs. Seattle Seahawks

· Tuesday, August 13 (KCAL 9) - Los Angeles Dodgers vs. New York Mets

· Saturday, August 18 (KCAL 9) - Los Angeles Dodgers at Philadelphia Phillies

Note: The Dodgers most recent game on KCAL (Tuesday vs. New York Yankees) attracted an average of 603,000 viewers - more people than watched any ABC, NBC or Fox primetime program during the entire month of July.

Dallas

Time Warner Cable subscribers in the Dallas-Fort Worth market will be deprived of the opportunity to watch the following marquee sporting events on CBS 11 and TXA 21 should Time Warner Cable continue to black out the stations:

· Friday, August 2 (TXA 21) - Texas Rangers at Oakland Athletics

· Friday, August 9 (CBS 11) - Dallas Cowboys at Oakland Raiders

· Friday, August 9 (TXA 21) - Texas Rangers at Houston Astros

· Saturday-Sunday, August 10-11 (CBS 11) - PGA Championship

· Friday, August 16 (TXA 21) - Texas Rangers vs. Seattle Mariners

· Saturday, August 17 (CBS 11) - Dallas Cowboys at St. Louis Cardinals

· Saturday/Sunday, August 17-18 (CBS 11) - PGA Tour Wyndam Championship

TIME WARNER CABLE SUSPENDS SHOWTIME(R) SERVICES NATIONWIDE DESPITE NETWORK'S OFFER TO CONTINUE CARRIAGE

For First Time In Network History, SHOWTIME Is Dropped


NEW YORK, NY (August 2, 2013) - Showtime Networks' customers nationwide have had their services disrupted by Time Warner Cable today, when for the first time in SHOWTIME history a distributor has chosen to remove the network's programming - despite the network's authorization to allow carriage while negotiations continue. Our customers chose to subscribe to SHOWTIME, and Time Warner Cable in turn chose to pull our service from the subscribers we both serve. Attempts to reach an extension on negotiations were denied by Time Warner Cable, resulting in SHOWTIME going dark in major markets.

The service interruption is not only completely unnecessary, but totally punitive to our subscribers, and will impact and inconvenience millions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks subscribers in major markets across the country. Major markets affected include New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, Tampa, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, San Diego, Columbus, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Austin and Detroit, among many others.

SHOWTIME has been working in good faith with Time Warner Cable to work out a contract, and is deeply disappointed with Time Warner Cable's decision to pull SHOWTIME channels. Unfortunately, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks subscribers will be denied access to new episodes of the climactic eighth and final season of DEXTER, and the most popular freshman series the network has ever had, RAY DONOVAN. Additionally, subscribers will also miss the opportunity to catch up on past seasons of HOMELAND before the series' fall debut, new episodes of WEB THERAPY and countless movies, specials and documentaries.

SHOWTIME has successfully negotiated a number of deals with all of the other major distributors, including Comcast, DirecTV, Cox, DISH, Verizon FiOS, Cablevision and AT&T U-Verse, among others. Time Warner Cable has taken nearly 50 channels off the air in just the past five years in disputes such as the one involving CBS and SHOWTIME now.

We hope and believe this period of darkness will be short, and we can all get back to the business of providing award-winning original series, hit movies, specials, provocative documentaries, and our hard-hitting sports programming to the Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks customers we both serve. We know our subscribers value their SHOWTIME programming, so we encourage them to call Time Warner Cable directly at 1-888-TW-CABLE and Bright House Networks at 1-855-222-0102 to ask that they restore our services. Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks customers who wish to continue their SHOWTIME subscription, should go to www.SHO.com/TimeWarnerCable for a list of television providers that currently offer SHOWTIME. We assure our subscribers that we are doing everything we can to restore their SHOWTIME services.

4 comments:

  1. Time Warner stinks! They have most subscribers captive with no other choice of cable companies. If I had a choice, I would have left Time Warner years ago! A big BOO to Time Warner Cable!

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  2. As a former resident of Manhattan and a former subscriber of Time Warner Cable, I can honestly say I do not regret my decision to cut the cord, especially at times like these!

    No, my decision won't be emulated nor liked by everyone and yes, it is not the most convenient at times but I am so much happier knowing that I will never be regarded as a pawn in the middle of a power struggle between two greedy media entities. Yay!

    To all my Manhattan based friends and fellow WLS devotees, might I suggest a nifty indoor digital antenna? In Manhattan, there is the advantage of being so close to a TV tower that you can get a cheap indoor antenna that will get you the basic stations(and maybe a few, you didn't even get w/cable).

    What are these Cable companies going to do when the general public becomes more tech savvy and finds more ways to consistently work around them???

    Hello, next generation of Media Disrupting equipment! I think you'll find a receptive audience now...

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  3. I never hear anything good about Time Warner.

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  4. One thing CBS neglects to mention in their press release is that - after Time Warner dropped CBS - CBS went ahead and blocked all subscribers of Time Warner Internet service from being able to watch CBS television shows at CBS.com and TV.com (which is owned by CBS). So Time Warner cable customers who also get their Internet service from the cable company are getting $creweD both ways.

    Ha! Now I know why my sister keeps that antenna on her roof!

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