While Time Warner Cable will pull local channels off its cable lineup when contract negotiations fail, the company was less aggressive fighting demands from Fox News Channel parent company News Corp., and caved in to higher fees for the cable news network.
People familiar with the talks said News Corp. won a major rate increase from the cable operator for its Fox News Channel which could reset the bar when other cable companies negotiate renewal contracts.
Sources told the Los Angeles Times Fox News Channel will now cost each cable subscriber more than $1 a month, up from 89 cents. Time Warner Cable will likely bundle that increase into the next round of customer rate hikes. Fox News Channel’s new price puts them among top tier cable networks like TNT and USA.
Last year, News Corp. President Chase Carey told Wall Street contract renewals for the channel “will take subscription fees to a whole new level.”
The only concession Time Warner Cable seemed to win was a more limited renewal agreement that only covered the Fox News Channel, Fox Movie Channel, and the barely-watched Fox Business Network. Time Warner Cable officials refused to renegotiate earlier, yet to expire deals with less popular Fox-owned cable networks.
The Times noted Fox News Channel did not want to lose more than 10 million cable subscribers at the height of election season, and the cable company did not want to deal with loyal Fox News viewers likely to complain or leave over the loss of the network.
With the renewal, every Time Warner Cable subscriber will pay even more for the channels whether they watch them or not.
It would be easier for people to pay for the channels they want to pay for. This is why bills are so high, these other channels are demanding huge amounts of money for your bill increase. And some of those channels I bet most of us dont care to watch.
If it was a model of pay for the channels you watch, so if lets say I dont watch fox news (which I dont) I wouldnt see a bill increase.
Fox News Channel is the highest rated news network. Their shows are consistently grabbing market share. So I am not shocked at them asking for more. But this is the name of the game these days and this is why I have to play the silly game of switching service providers every couple of years to take advantage of generous promo deals.
Yes I recognize they have the ratings, but the inflating race of who can extract more money means ultimately we all end up paying. I did find it interesting that the Los Angeles Times pointed out News Corp. was partly-motivated to cut a deal because this is an election year. I guess we need to make up our own minds as to whether the motivation here is to influence the outcome or simply cash in on advertising revenue made possible by presumably higher ratings. I don’t watch Fox News myself because there is no real news there. They have completely… Read more »
No love for PBS?
I respect your opinions Phillip, but Fox does indeed have **Real** news. Yes, I am a conservative (surprise !) I do not watch MSNBC and rarely watch CNN. CNN’s ratings are in the tank, but it is easy to see why. And the meanness that exists on some of MSNBC’s shows does not appeal to me at all. Without getting too political, this nation is in trouble and it is not totally the fault of the left. Keep up the great work Phil.
I am an LONG TIME Time Warner Customer who is now FURIOUS………Had scheduled appt with technician to come out today, took time out of MY DAY on a Saturday morning when I could have gotten paid to work time and 1/2 at my job and when the tech called at about 8:30am, he was rude, condescending and laughed when I said my internet was “intermittent”. Then he stated “what do you want me to do about it then?”. I told him he has an appointment to be here, he stated “are you home now?”, I told him he was calling… Read more »
I also have Time Warner cable/internet. I’m sorry your having issues with their support and I can not comment on that. However, there is one really great reason to stay with Time Warner even with your problems… They have no data cap on your internet usage. AT&T, Cox, Comcast all have and are switching their people to have caps on their internet usage. Do your homework and do not support these company’s their are using their monopolies to restrict your internet usage!