AkronNewsNow.com

AUDIO Time Warner Battles Program Rate Increases
7/30/2010 4:56:24 PM | Larry States, AkronNewsNow.com

The next time you want to vent about your escalating Cable TV bill you may want to also direct your anger at the network that provides your favorite channel.

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Time Warner Cable of Northeast Ohio Communications Manager Travis Reynolds says the cable channels are demanding much higher rates for cable companies to pay to carry their programming.

Reynolds tells AkronNewsNow.com, "we're seeing it in the cable business more and more, and what we're doing is reaching out to our customers in an effort to just continue to educate them about the process of negotiating agreements with programmers, and the impact those negotiations have on their cable bill."

Reynolds explains the cable TV rate fight

The latest rate battle is with Disney, which provides the Disney Channel, ABC and ESPN to cable providers. Reynolds says Time Warner customers can find out more about the rate fight at the web site www.RolloverOrGetTough.com. You can also e-mail your comments to the web site.

Reynolds says Cleveland's WEWS NewsChannel5 is not affected by the ABC negotiations since it is just an ABC affiliate, and is not owned by the network.

Reynolds says more than 40% of a customers bill reflect the fees programmers charge Time Warner to carry their channels.

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posted at 7/30/2010 8:31:52 PM (23503)
misstia said:

weren't they going to make cable channels a la cart?? i sure wish they would....i might get cable again if they did that....all they're doing now is trying to appear 'the good guy' when they are not!

posted at 7/30/2010 11:10:53 PM (23505)
magiccityman said:

@ misstia,
Via, Wikipedia,
The industry strongly lobbies against federal "family tier" and "a la carte cable television" bills which would provide consumers the option of purchasing individual channels rather than a broad tier of programming, sometimes consisting of channels which are not desired by various subscriber segments. These anti-consumer issues continue to garner attention from state governments, Congress and U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin.[8] What's more, the argument calling for an adjustment to the manner in which cable is distributed was reaffirmed in January 2010 when cable subscribers throughout Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York found themselves in the middle of a contentious battle over an increase in subscriber fees paid to the media companyScripps Networks Interactive by cable provider Cablevision. The parties' contract expired December 31, 2009, and as they were unable to reach a mutual agreement beforehand regarding the amount paid for each cable subscriber, Scripps pulled two of its television channels, HGTV and Food Network, from the Cablevision channel lineup on January 1, 2010 at 12:01AM.

posted at 7/31/2010 10:53:34 AM (23506)
misstia said:

thank you magiccityman!

posted at 8/1/2010 8:30:11 AM (23511)
kala said:

I am so sick of my cable bill going up.

posted at 8/1/2010 9:36:57 AM (23513)
GRANNY678 said:

give me a break!!! All Time Warner needs is a "hoodie" and it would be right in there with the rest of the robbers. I'm going back to the old antenna on the roof.

posted at 8/2/2010 12:15:44 PM (23521)
LA-Man said:

The real problem is that TWC's service is awful. I was an early adopter of Road Runner - but after years of poor service - I switched to AT&T. Good move. Switched to DirecTv - Great Move!

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