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The weak economy is at least partially responsible for an ongoing video subscriber slide at Cablevision Systems (NYSE: CVC), COO Tom Rutledge said during an earnings conference call, adding that the MSO is still reeling after a retransmission dispute with News Corp.'s (Nasdaq: NWSA) Fox Networks that resulted in a blackout during last year's Major League Baseball playoffs. "Cablevision core system ... lost about 8400 video customers. Some of that was attributable to how we came into the year after the dispute that we had with News Corp. and the carriage and the World Series (but) we still continue to...

I gave up cable TV a few days ago. I watched perhaps five or six channels, at most, and it just wasn't worth the money. Now, I have no TV at all since my set is pre-digital and I don't have an antenna. What now? Do I have to get a special antenna? I would like to have at least broadcast TV if only for sports.

After losing its ratings lead and falling to last in primetime, the once-dominant CNN stands to lose the last piece of top-shelf value still attached to its business side: premium pricing. Time Warner-owned CNN, while getting beaten handily in the ratings race and having fallen to fourth place in rankings, still commands higher ad rates than rivals -- in some cases double those of Fox News and MSNBC. But perhaps not for long. While advertisers have been willing to shell out more for CNN's venerable brand, broad audience reach and less-opinionated programming, media buyers said the network's ratings slide is...

2:15 PM UPDATE: I've learned that 100 people are being laid off across "several divisions" of the A&E Television Networks yesterday and today "as a direct result of the merger". It will make those employees feel so much better that management tells me it's "no one in a decision making role." A&E Television Networks in August acquired Lifetime Entertainment, and everything is now owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst and NBC Universal. Big Media = Big Mergers = Big Mistakes.

Time Warner (TWX Quote) said second-quarter earnings fell 34% to $519 million, or 43 cents a share, from $792 million, or 66 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings of 45 cents topped the estimates of analysts of 37 cents a share as surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Revenue in the quarter fell 9% to $6.8 billion. At Time Warner's content group, which is made up of the networks, filmed entertainment, publishing and corporate segments, revenue declined 6%. The content division saw adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization rise 4% in the period. The company said it's "on track"...

Viacom's second-quarter profit tumbled 32 percent as revenue fell amid a weak advertising market, slower video game sales and fewer movie releases. The media conglomerate controlled by billionaire Sumner Redstone earned $277 million, or 46 cents per share, compared with $407 million, or 65 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Excluding 3 cents per share in severance charges, adjusted earnings were 49 cents in the latest quarter. Revenue slipped 14 percent to $3.3 billion. Analysts projected income of 48 cents per share on sales of $3.5 billion. New York-based Viacom Inc. owns a wide range of media...

On day one, CNN ruled cable news. But while viewers may flock to the network for election day or the Inauguration, day 130 is a different story. CNN, which just took home a Peabody Award for its 2008 election coverage, and dominated cable-news ratings on days when politics took center stage, is having trouble getting those viewers back on other nights. Since Obama took office, CNN’s prime-time audience has dropped sharply, raising doubts about whether the network’s middle-of-the-road strategy can be effective against more opinionated programming on Fox News and MSNBC. CNN President Jon Klein is quick to brush aside...

Time-Warner Cable will no longer carry Mark Cuban's HD Net, which broadcast Ring of Honor, beginning on or around May 31 in the New York City area. There had been talk of the cable provider pulling the channel its lineup a few months ago, but those plans were temporarily but on the back burner as talks between Time Warner and HD Net progressed.

Time Warner Inc.'s first-quarter net income fell 14% on weakness at its America Online and publishing businesses, but results topped analysts' expectations. Media companies continue to be hurt by worries about declining advertising sales and uncertainty over the transition to digital content. With its spinoff of Time Warner Cable Inc. complete, Time Warner's next challenge is deciding what to do with AOL, the struggling Internet unit. Time Warner cleared another hurdle earlier this month by winning approval from bondholders of $12.3 billion in debt to adjust covenants that limit the media giant's ability to dispose of AOL's assets. snip Time...

Media company Viacom(VIA Quote - Cramer on VIA - Stock Picks) said fourth-quarter earnings fell 69% to $173 million, or 28 cents a share, as revenue remained flat at $4.24 billion. Excluding restructuring and other charges, Viacom said earnings from continuing operations were 76 cents a share compared with 84 cents a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected fourth-quarter earnings of 77 cents a share on revenue of $4.24 billion. The company said operating income in the quarter fell 51% to $475 million, including the impact of $454 million in restructuring and other charges. "Our fourth-quarter results reflect...

Cable cancellations Scripps Networks Interactive, which operates the Food Network and other cable outlets, said Feb. 5 that the percentage of upfront cancellations is running in the low double digits, as opposed to cancellation rates of 2% to 5% in the first quarter. Speaking to investors on a conference call held by investment-bank Credit Suisse First Boston on Feb. 6, Mel Berning, A&E Networks exec VP-national ad sales, said second-quarter option cancellations could come in at about 10% across cable. Top-tier outlets have been able to maintain scatter pricing, he said, but scatter at other places is down by percentages...

Time Warner Inc. on Wednesday reported a $16 billion loss in the fourth quarter after writing down the value of intangible assets held by the company's cable operations, AOL and Time Inc. Time Warner (TWX) lost $16 billion, or $4.47 a share, compared with a profit of $1.03 billion, or 28 a share in the year-earlier quarter. Excluding the charges, Time Warner would have earned 23 cents a share in the latest three months. Revenue fell 3% to $12.3 billion. The company was expected to earn 27 cents a share on revenue of $12.7 billion, according to a poll of...

A judgment against Turner Broadcasting System in December following a trial related to the 2004 sale of its winter sports teams, resulting in an aggregate charge of approximately $280 million... The restructuring of a lease for space in the Time & Life Building, held by a lessee who recently declared bankruptcy, that will require a charge of $50 million to $60 million. An increase of approximately $40 million in reserves for potential credit losses related to several customers of Time Warner who have recently declared bankruptcy. The economic environment has proved somewhat more challenging than the Company previously expected, particularly...

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- There's nothing new about fee disputes between TV networks and cable and satellite operators, but now they've got an added wrinkle: Cable operators contending that TV networks should forfeit big fee increases when they put shows online free on their own sites and third-party distributors such as Hulu, Joost and Veoh. That's one of the central arguments being made by Time Warner Cable executives in their dispute with Viacom, which threatens to remove a group of 18 networks that includes MTV, Comedy Central, Noggin and Nickelodeon from Time Warner's 13.5 million subscribers in big markets such...

An important National Football League game on a recent Saturday night was dark on millions of television screens, but it lit up an untold number of laptops. The game between the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys was pivotal in determining playoff teams, and it was the last home game ever for the Cowboys before they move to a new stadium. But because of a long-lasting feud between the NFL Network and many cable companies, many millions of fans could not watch the game on television. Yet they could watch any number of illicit live streams on the Internet. After years...

Editor's note: This is part of a series of stories about the recession's effect on the tech industry. A year before the U.S. economic crisis came to a head, Debra James of Oakland said she saw the writing on the wall and decided to trim the household budget. Topping the list were things like satellite television. I could tell the economy was getting sluggish in the summer of 2007," she said. "So I decided we needed to make some cuts, so that if things got worse, it wouldn't be so painful." Indeed, things did get worse. The U.S. economy has...

Instapundit points out an article about a family that ditched their satellite TV: You don’t need satellite TV when times get tough After a few Google searches, James said she found a wealth of legitimate sources for TV programming online. Sites such as Hulu, Fancast, Joost, YouTube, and most major TV networks’ Web sites offer TV shows and other video content for free. Using an existing rooftop antenna, James plugged her TV into the hook-up to get more than 50 high-definition TV channels over-the-air. The cost for these HD channels: zero. And instead of spending an extra $20 a month...

General Electric Co expects profit at its NBC Universal media business to be flat to down slightly, Chief Executive Jeff Immelt told investors on Tuesday.

EW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Cable Inc will likely sell fewer than expected video, Internet and phone subscriptions this year, and expects a further decline next year due to the worsening U.S. economy, Chief Financial Officer Rob Marcus said on Monday. "In 2008, we're on track to deliver less than 2.5 million additional revenue-generating units," Marcus told the Reuters Media Summit in New York, adding that that was less than what the No. 2 U.S. cable company had originally anticipated. Revenue-generating unit, or RGU, is a cable industry term used for each video, Internet and phone subscription sold. Time...

Utility’s cable television and Internet service has been sold to Comcast by the city council of Alameda, California. The reason for the sale was due to a listless growth of the company due to decline in cable subscription. The sale will help to clear off the Alameda Power & Telecom’s debt of $33 million.