Since the beginning of the month subscribers of Time Warner Cable have gone without CBS and Showtime in New York, Los Angeles, and the Dallas-Forth Worth area. This is all due to the ongoing dispute Time Warner Cable is having with CBS. While there seems to be no end in sight to the dispute, Verizon Fios is doing something to woo Time Warner Cable’s employees.
Verizon Fios, another competing cable provider is attempting to woo Time Warner Cable’s staff. In a memo to the staff, Verizon Fios wrote that they’re giving “exclusive discounts and special promotions” to employees that are interested in switching over to their cable service. That’s a pretty shark move.
According to reports, Verizon Fios will also send a sales team to the CBS headquarters in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas to sign up new customers in lieu of the blackout.
Terms of the dispute aren’t exactly career. It depends on who you ask when figuring out who’s the one to blame. We do know that the dispute started because Time Warner Cable and CBS are at odds because an agreement hasn’t been made on how CBS plans to distribute their content on streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix.
This dispute proves to be no walk in the park for CBS either. The company is said to have lost $400,000 per day since it went off the air in those markets.
The blackout hasn’t really affected customers who are savvy. It has been proven time and time again with internet piracy available, that if someone wants their hands on content, they’re going to get it at whatever cost. A week after its blackout, it was reported that TV piracy was on the rise. According to TorrentFreak , piracy rates for popular show Under The Dome increased by 34 percent. We can only imagine what will happen when the fall season starts.
Are you affected by the CBS blackout?
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