Media War

“Time Warner Cable and News Corp’s Fox Networks agreed to a brief extension of their current carriage contract on Thursday to avoid a blackout that would have prevented 13 million U.S. homes from seeing TV shows like ‘The Simpsons’ and college and NFL football games. The two sides continued to negotiate for a longer-term deal into the early hours of Friday morning. The short-term extension between Fox and Time Warner Cable comes after a months-long dispute over how much the second largest U.S. cable company should pay for the right to deliver the free-to-air Fox broadcast network to its subscribers in major cities like New York and Los Angeles. News Corp, which is controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has been targeting around $1 a month per subscriber, a sum which Time Warner Cable has described as ‘unreasonable’. Time Warner Cable executives have privately pointed to deals with other smaller broadcasters for around 20-25 cents a subscriber. The dispute has played out in the press and aggressive marketing campaigns from both companies seeking support from the affected subscribers.”