Comedy central and Time Warner feud?

Bored as usual at this unnatural hour I decided to head over to comedy central and watch a free episode of South Park. After clicking the link, this message popped up.

ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! Attention Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks customers, starting tonight, you will lose your favorite Comedy Central shows on TV and online because of a dispute with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. You can stop this! Time Warner Cable customers call 1-800-762-3786 and Bright House Networks customers call 1-866-309-3279, AND DEMAND THEY KEEP YOUR CHANNEL! YOU MUST BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD TO CALL.

?? Really? I have not heard a single thing about this and thought maybe someone here would no what the problem is.

[edit on 31-12-2008 by Raustin]

Did you visit their website?

Most probably, the website might be hacked, is the main page defaced?

Edit: The content looks as though a group of pranksters has written it. Just think of it, if the show will not be aired any longer, then why will Time Warner want viewers to call its help line number, wont it increase the burden of the staff, and also, no official announcement will start with "Alert!, Alert!".

Thus, we can simply conclude that the website was hacked and wait for it to be fixed.

[edit on 31/12/08 by peacejet]

reply to post by peacejet


Actually, Time Warner isn't the one telling people to call here, Comedy Central is right?

Could be hacked, I dunno. Just figured I would point this little part out though.

Upon a bit of research(aka quick google search). It looks like there is something to it.


Time Warner Cable To Lose Comedy Central, MTV In Viacom Spat

gawker.com...

From New York to Los Angeles, Viacom channels like Comedy Central are set to flicker off cable systems in the first minute of 2009. Sumner Redstone's desperation finally impacted your life!

Time Warner Cable Loses Viacom: MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central To Go Dark

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Media giant Viacom Inc. said its Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 16 other channels will go dark on Time Warner Cable Inc. at 12:01 a.m. Thursday if a new carriage fee deal is not agreed upon by then.

...

The channels that would be affected are: Comedy Central, CMT: Pure Country, Logo, Palladia, MTV, MTV 2, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV Tr3s, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nick 2, Nicktoons, Spike, The N, TV Land, VH1, VH1 Classic, and VH1 Soul.

[edit on 31-12-2008 by badmedia]

It didn't appear to be hacked. Nothing seemed to be defaced at all though this is my first visit to the site. All links worked properly, and the pop up looked legit to me. I did think the message was pretty sub par though. Just go there and click a link. Then again, if it's been hacked maybe that's a bad idea.

Ahh just got your post Badmedia. Thanks for the info. It seemed a little weird to me.

[edit on 31-12-2008 by Raustin]

reply to post by Raustin


Basically, it appears that they are in negotiations over price. So I guess if a bunch of people call and flood in Time Warner, then it puts pressure on Time Warner to pay Viacom more.

reply to post by badmedia


Meh, if that's all there is to it I suppose I don't care. Holy crap I just said meh.
How lame is this post, sorry guys.

i saw that too lastr nite

also in more unrelated news,,,, wb is suing cbs or warner over two and a half men show

and ,i think, the producer, is suing who ever priduces gilmore girls

somehow i came across that info on the net today

news.yahoo.com...

Statement from Glenn Britt, President & CEO, Time Warner Cable
Re: Viacom’s threats to pull MTV Networks from Time Warner Cable customers
December 31, 2008

Christmas is over, but Viacom is still playing Scrooge, threatening to pull its MTV Networks off of Time Warner Cable at midnight tonight unless we ask our customers to pay exorbitant price increases.

Viacom claims their demands equate to “pennies,” but that is misleading and insulting to our customers, from whom Viacom is trying to extort another $39 million annually – on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars our customers already pay to Viacom each year. That doesn’t sound like pennies to us. Demanding that our customers pay so much more for these few networks would be unreasonable in any economy, but it is particularly outrageous given the current economic conditions.

We sympathize with the fact that Viacom’s advertising business is suffering and that their networks’ ratings have largely been declining. However, we can’t abide their attempt to make up their lost revenue on the backs of Time Warner Cable customers. We’ve negotiated in good faith and made several concessions to help reach a fair and reasonable deal. We’ve asked for an extension of the current contract while we continue to negotiate. But Viacom doesn’t appear to be interested in what’s fair and reasonable for American consumers – they’re only interested in propping up their sagging bottom line, and they are poised to pull their networks from Time Warner Cable customers tonight.

Huge price increases like what Viacom is demanding threaten the ultimate value of cable TV. Time Warner Cable is a retail distributor of products we purchase wholesale. Wholesale programming costs are rising dramatically every year, and, like all multichannel distributors, we have to pass on at least a portion of the increases to our customers. Viacom’s MTV Networks are just a few of the hundreds of channels we carry. If every channel demanded huge, double-digit increases like what Viacom is trying to force our customers to pay, it would be impossible to keep the price of cable reasonable for our customers.

Time Warner Cable has reached hundreds of distribution agreements with other networks. In fact, we currently have deals with every other cable programmer. The negotiations aren’t always easy, but we work hard to reach agreements that are fair to our customers and to both businesses.

We hope Viacom won’t pull the MTV Networks from Time Warner Cable customers, and we’ll negotiate up to the last possible minute and beyond. But ultimately, it is Viacom’s decision. We implore them to join with us to reach a fair resolution or grant an extension, and we hope they won’t carry through with their threat to take their networks away from our customers tonight.

Mod Edit: To add ex tags. Please add your own comments in the future.

[edit on 31-12-2008 by MemoryShock]

No Daily Show, No Colbert Report?

Now that's reason enough for a revolution.

Let's burn the satellite dishes so this never happens again!

I read an article about it last night. Basically with the number of cable subscribers that these two have if they passed the increase in costs along to the customers, people's cable bill will go up by less than fifty cents. I'll have to go find the article again since I can't remember exactly what it said, I just remember that it wasn't really that big of an increase to pass along to the customer and most people aren't going to pitch a fit if their cable bill goes up a few cents.

Found it: 'Colbert', 'SpongeBob' may go dark on Time Warner

Viacom has asked for fee increases of between 22 percent and 36 percent per channel, or a total of $39 million more, an amount that could increase customers' cable bills, said Time Warner Cable spokesman Alex Dudley.

"The issue is that they have asked for an exorbitant increase in their carriage fees and their network ratings are sagging," Dudley said. "Basically we're trying to hold the line for our customer."

Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew disputed the figure, saying Viacom requested an increase in the very low double-digit percentage range.

Viacom said the increases would cost an extra 23 cents a month per subscriber. It said that Americans spend a fifth of their TV time watching Viacom shows but its fees make up less than 2.5 percent of the Time Warner cable bill.

..................

The channels that would be affected are: Comedy Central, CMT: Pure Country, Logo, Palladia, MTV, MTV 2, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV Tr3s, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nick 2, Nicktoons, Spike, The N, TV Land, VH1, VH1 Classic, and VH1 Soul.

Edit to add link and snippet from article.

[edit on 31-12-2008 by Jenna]

Attention Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks customers, starting tonight, you will lose your favorite Nickelodeon shows on TV and online because of a dispute with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. You can stop this! Time Warner Cable customers call 1-800-762-3786 and Bright House Networks customers call 1-866-309-3279, AND DEMAND THEY KEEP YOUR CHANNEL! YOU MUST BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD TO CALL.

ViaCom's advertizing revenue is down...
so to recover the losses and make a sizeable chunk of change in the future

ViaCom is squeezing TWC and other localized monopilies, configured by the FCC, for some robust fee increases...
our local provider; TWC has some local - community service announcements - addressing the situation

as much as i dislike TWC...even to the point of using HTC (Horry Telephone Co-op) as a dial-up ISP for 5 years...and using Earthlink as my current ISP for the last 4 years... I applaud the TWC candor about this attempted rip-off by Via-Com.

ADD: i'd be willing to give-up 'Colbert' and even my late night 'Swim' comedy channel stuff to keep the local rip-off cable price where it is right now!
With the future contraction of the economy, and price deflation-- where does ViaCom get off strapping the soon-to-be-dwindling subscriber base with the burden of paying for ViaCopms CEOs golden-parachute & bonus ontop of his outrageous (don't break a sweat) wages ?!?



[edit on 31-12-2008 by St Udio]

reply to post by St Udio


I suspect this will get resolved the usual way.

They'll let people complain about just enough to cover their butts when the pass it on to the consumer.

So if they remove all these channels, do you think the price of the cable will go down? For some reason, I doubt it will work that way.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


That's exactly why there is still a need for Advocates...even spokespersons...
and (i dare I say) Lobbyists... !!!


to think that TWC is acting out of the kindness of their heart, is one thing...

but...when ViaCom pushes this rate increase through the regulating agency--- And it will cost someone money to fight it.... don't expect Cox Cable/Jones/ComCast/TWC or any of the others to fight our fight for us peons



i like how the metrics are used to imply the cost increase is insignificant..
but omit the same scale-of-size factor which would negate any increase in rates. Let's instead pay the upper execuitives at ViaCom a .0001 cent rate for the channels available per day X per month..
Which could perhaps be less than their payment algorithm in place now...but, because a lot more of us will be unemployed in the next few months & be watching more shows and the advertisements that go along with the shows...their AD revenue should skyrocket...

IOW, ViaCom should reduce their present program access fees !!

We just went through the same thing here in Buffalo with TWC and CBS. I think CBS was off TWC for about a month or so. It only affects the people who watch those stations. Expect little sympathy from those who don't.

most of the libs will be out of their only sources of news material, john steward (the lunatic from the Tucker Carlson old show interview, boy was John on some crazzzzy pills or what)