It's a New Year's miracle: While News Corp. threatened to pull its stations from Time Warner Cable systems during subscriber fee negotiations at midnight, Fox remained on air. It turned out that two media behemoths agreed to extend talks. The Wall Street Journal reports they have "avert[ed] any programming disruptions for cable subscribers for the time being."
The FCC had urged both sides to continue talking yesterday. News Corp. wants $1 per subscriber (per month), which the WSJ says is "a rate that would set a new precedent for the broadcast industry as it seeks to shift its business model to include substantial subscription fees from pay-TV operators like its cable network counterparts." Which Time Warner Cable naturally doesn't want to do, preferring to pay a lower rate and to avoid pay $1 per subscriber to other networks like ABC, CBS and NBC.
However, some cable networks were yanked off a cable system today: Scripps took FoodTV and HGTV off Cablevision because it wants more money from Cablevision. Scripps CEO Kenneth Lowe said, "Viewers love our talent and our shows, which is why Food Network and HGTV rank among the top networks in cable. But our valuable networks simply are not being compensated like top ten networks by Cablevision. The distribution rates Cablevision pays for Food and HGTV are among the lowest in the industry."
