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Time Warner Cable Blackout of certain Hearst stations
Time Warner Conversations ^ | 9 JUL 12 | Unknown

Posted on 07/11/2012 10:36:13 AM PDT by Kenika

Hearst TV local blackouts

On July 9, 2012 Hearst Television chose to black out their signals from Time Warner Cable customers rather than continue negotiations, and despite their CEO saying just two weeks earlier that broadcaster blackouts are unfair to consumers.

Time Warner Cable has reached hundreds of agreements with other broadcasters without broadcaster blackouts, but Hearst’s demand for a nearly 300% increase is way out of line. That kind of outrageous increase is unfair to our customers and unsustainable for our business.

We believe broadcaster blackouts are wrong. Despite Hearst’s blackout, we stand ready to continue negotiations and are hopeful that the channel will be returned to the lineup shortly.

The Hearst Television stations included in this blackout include: Hawaii KITV-ABC Boston WCVB-ABC Portland ME WMTW-ABC Hartford VT WNNE-NBC Plattsburgh NY WPTZ-NBC Plattsburgh NY WPTZ-D2 –This TV Winston-Salem NC WXII-NBC Kansas City MO KCWE-CW Kansas City MO KMBC-ABC Lincoln NE KETV-ABC Louisville KY WLKY-CBS Cincinnati OH WLWT-NBC Pittsburgh PA Manchester NH WTAE-ABC WMUR-ABC

Finding Your Favorite Programs

Despite a Hearst-imposed blackout, you’ll still be able to see many of your favorite shows:

You can always receive Hearst’s stations free over the air, with an antenna and digital TV tuner. National ABC, CBS, and MyTV programming can be found for free on www.abc.com, www.cbs.com and www.mytv.com respectively, and some programming can be found for a fee at www.hulu.com. National NBC primetime programming continues to be available via Primetime on Demand, even if your local NBC Hearst TV station is blacked out. Simply find NBC Primetime on Demand on your channel lineup—it’s that simple. In a handful of markets, we’re happy to be able to make arrangements to bring the national network programming from another city, so our customers can still view their favorite network programming despite Hearst’s blackouts.

In place of Hearst Television’s blacked out station We’ve arranged to bring you national network programming on the following station WLKY in Louisville WROC (CBS from Rochester NY) WLWT in Cincinnati WTWO (NBC from Terre Haute IN)

WNNE in Moultonborough WBRE (NBC from Wilkes Barre PA) WPTZ in Plattsburgh WBRE (NBC from Wilkes Barre PA) WXII in Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem WBRE (NBC from Wilkes Barre PA)

FAQs

Q: Why is this happening again? It seems like this happens all the time.

A: Unfortunately, these kinds of disputes have become more common over the past few years. Cable TV prices are rising and one cause is higher fees being demanded by greedy broadcasters – as their advertising dollars decline, they want cable customers to make up the difference. And if we don’t agree to their outrageous demands, they take away their programming. We don’t think it’s fair for TV stations to hold programming hostage for our customers, and we are working hard to keep the programming on our lineup while also trying to hold down the cost of TV.

Q: Why shouldn’t I just go ahead and switch to DirecTV/Dish/FIOS/AT&T now?

A: Switching makes no sense; most of these contract blackouts are over within a matter of days. But switching isn’t really the answer—any provider you switch to may eventually face the same kind of blackout threats. In fact, the American Television Alliance reports that broadcasters have blacked out signals in nearly 100 different cities since January 2011, with customers of DirecTV, Dish Network, AT&T U-Verse, Verizon FIOS and other major cable companies suffering actual or threatened blackouts. We think blackouts are unfair to viewers, which is why we continue to negotiate hard on your behalf to try to keep prices down.

Q: Will you be crediting me for the channel(s) that go dark?

A: Remember that customers do not pay for channels on an individual basis—they pay for a package of channels plus the technology and service required to deliver those channels. So we do not typically offer a credit for channels that have been blacked out.

Q: It’s great that you can bring me national network programming from another city, but why couldn’t you bring from a city that’s closer? Or why couldn’t you bring it to my city, too?

A: Certain rules limit our ability to import tv signals from other cities. We have done so where those rules currently permit it.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Local News; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: hearst; tv

1 posted on 07/11/2012 10:36:26 AM PDT by Kenika
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To: Kenika

All that DVR, commercial skipping is coming home to roost. It could not last.

I know, the programming sucks; but there are always a few shows we watch; sans commercials. It’s a business model set to fail.


2 posted on 07/11/2012 10:46:23 AM PDT by cicero2k
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To: Kenika

TWC blacked out NBC and the CW for almost 6 months in Corpus Christi, TX for the same reason.


3 posted on 07/11/2012 10:47:50 AM PDT by Positive (Nothing is sadder than to see a beautiful theory murdered by a gang of brutal facts.)
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To: cicero2k

> It’s a business model set to fail.

And there you have it. This despite the FCC having just forced all over-the-air broadcasters to upgrade their equipment for digital TV at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per station.

There’s a lesson in here somewhere about government meddling in private enterprise...


4 posted on 07/11/2012 10:58:08 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: Kenika

Viacom is doing the same thing with Directv. No more Spike, Nickelodian, Comedy, Logo, CMT, TV Land, MTV, VH1.


5 posted on 07/11/2012 11:39:45 AM PDT by anoldafvet
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To: cicero2k

I disagree. They just have to get their commercials in where you can’t skip them, aka product placement. Recently I’ve noticed a lot of car related stuff (driver talking to passenger while using new automatic parking function with auto logo on steering wheel plainly visible and some comment from the characters about how cool it is).

I suspect in the future the specific product won’t be hard coded in. Showing that “cool new feature” isn’t going to benefit the auto maker ten years from now during a rerun. What they will probably do is encode in the video stream “there is a drink can here, with label facing this way” and then have a computer render in the details during broadcast. That way they can sell advertising to the highest bidder every time they show the program. They could even show different products based on location, where regional products might be shown in their local markets.

Then again, maybe they’ll all go the SciFi channel route and make their programming so bloody stupid that people will skip the shows and only watch commercials.


6 posted on 07/11/2012 11:57:00 AM PDT by Darth Reardon (No offense to drunken sailors)
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To: Kenika
You can always receive Hearst’s stations free over the air, with an antenna and digital TV tuner.
Gheeze, what a concept - FREE television. Who knew?
Monthly rates are so high, I think every cable viewer in the US should cancel their subscription for at least 3-6 months.
Maybe then providers like Time Warner, FIOS, Comcast, etc., won't take us for granted.
7 posted on 07/11/2012 1:25:09 PM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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