Time Warner Cable Backtracks On CBS Blackout

Minutes after Time Warner Cable (TWC) threatened to remove CBS channels in Los Angeles, New York, and Dallas-Fort Worth, the company suddenly changed its mind.

TWC and CBS Corp. have reportedly butted heads during their retransmission consent negotiations. Since the cable provider feels CBS is asking for way too much money, they threatened to pull the proverbial plug on several of their popular channels.

Had Time Warner moved forward with its plan, then the aforementioned areas would have lost Showtime, TMC, Flix, and CBS local stations. However, their decision to black out the channels was reversed at the last moment.

“At the request of CBS, we have halted going dark on their channels. I’ll update you when I have more information I can share. Thanks very much for your patience everyone,” a representative for Time Warner Cable said in a statement after midnight on Monday.

In a release prior to the reversal, the folks at TWC blamed CBS for causing all of the problems. In their opinion, the network was simply asking for way too much cash.

“The outrageous demands for fees by CBS Corp. have forced Time Warner Cable to remove several of its networks and broadcast stations from our customers’ lineups,” the company explained.

Since nobody likes to have the finger of blame pointed in their direction, CBS fired back with a statement of their own. Not surprisingly, the company blamed Time Warner Cable for all of the recent trouble.

CBS Corp. said in their own defense:

They continue to engage in a public campaign of disinformation and voodoo mathematics (featuring wildly inflated percentages) while doggedly restating their positions. Time Warner Cable seems incapable of accepting the concept that the value of a company’s programming should be in line with its popularity.

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves told reporters on Monday that negotiations were still moving forward. The companies have extended the deadline to Friday. If TWC decides to drop the networks, then it will be the first time in history that CBS has been ditched by a cable provider.

“There’s progress being made and hopefully we don’t go dark. We still believe our content is worth a lot of money,” Moonves explained.

What do you think about the problems between Time Warner Cable and CBS?

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