Feud with Viacom may affect programs

Feud with Viacom may affect programs

Ohio residents are among the 13.3 million Time Warner Cable subscribers involved.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A spat between Time Warner Cable Inc. and Viacom Inc. over how much the cable company pays to carry channels such as MTV and Comedy Central headed down to the wire on New Year’s Eve — as a blackout loomed at a minute past the stroke of midnight.

Time Warner, the nation’s second-largest cable operator, proposed an increase in what it pays for Viacom’s channels, but the offer was rejected as “a pittance,” said Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew.

High-level phone talks continued Wednesday night.

If the impasse is not resolved, shows such as “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “The Colbert Report” will be unavailable to about 15.7 million subscribers to Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, an affiliate for which it negotiates programming deals.

Time Warner Cable serves 13.3 million people in New York state, the Carolinas, Ohio, Southern California and Texas; Bright House has 2.4 million customers in Michigan, Indiana, California, Alabama and Florida.

Time Warner Chief Executive Glenn Britt on Wednesday called Viacom’s demand for a 12 percent increase in fees — an extra $39 million on top of the estimated $300 million it pays Viacom annually — extortion and outrageous given the recession. Viacom countered that the requested increase amounted to an extra $2.76 annually per subscriber.

“We sympathize with the fact that Viacom’s advertising business is suffering and that their networks’ ratings have largely been declining,” Britt said in a statement. “However, we can’t abide their attempt to make up their lost revenue on the backs of Time Warner Cable customers.”

In a public relations blitz, Viacom took out newspaper ads showing Nickelodeon’s animated bilingual heroine “Dora the Explorer” crying and clinging to her monkey pal, Boots.

“Why is Dora crying?” the ad asks. “Time Warner Cable is taking Dora off the air tonight!” The ad urged viewers to call Time Warner Cable and demand that their favorite shows remain on the air.

Viacom planned to run TV ads starting today on local broadcast stations in 11 major markets including New York, Los Angeles and Dallas, blaming Time Warner Cable for the blackout.

It also launched ads on its networks Wednesday night declaring that “starting tonight, you will lose 19 channels from your TV” — prompting an outcry from the American Cable Association, which said the messages also hit some 83 million subscribers “that have nothing to do with that mess.”