Michael Levine the garden island An ongoing dispute between Time Warner Cable and Viacom over the price of channels such as MTV and Comedy Central was still unresolved yesterday, with the possibility of Hawai‘i cable subscribers losing a host of
Michael Levine
the garden island
An ongoing dispute between Time Warner Cable and Viacom over the price of channels such as MTV and Comedy Central was still unresolved yesterday, with the possibility of Hawai‘i cable subscribers losing a host of channels at the stroke of midnight.
After Viacom proposed a larger-than-average increase to its rates, Time Warner, the nation’s second-largest cable operator, countered with an offer that was rejected as “a pittance” by Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew.
Time Warner Chief Executive Glenn Britt on Wednesday called Viacom’s demand for a 12 percent increase in fees — an extra $39 million on top of the estimated $300 million it pays Viacom annually — extortion and outrageous given the recession.
Alan Pollock, vice president of marketing for Oceanic Time Warner, the conglomerate’s Hawai‘i division, said the rate increase represents a jump between two and three times higher than Viacom typically asks for, saying, “for us, that’s crazy.”
“With the perceived value of their product dropping and with no sensitivity to the economic conditions at all … we said enough is enough,” Pollock said.
Viacom countered that the requested increase amounted to an extra $2.76 annually per subscriber.
If the impasse is not resolved, popular shows such as “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “The Colbert Report” will be unavailable to Time Warner’s 13.3 million cable subscribers because no agreement on an extension of the current terms had been reached as of press time.
A representative of Viacom told The Garden Island that it would still be providing a feed to Time Warner, just as it does to many other cable providers. A decision to cut off programming to subscribers would be made by Time Warner so as to avoid paying the increased rates.
Pollock confirmed that fact, noting that the lack of an extension made continuing on Viacom’s unchanged terms unlikely.
If a blackout were to occur, the affected channels would be: Comedy Central, Logo, Palladia, MTV, MTV 2, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV Tr3s, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nick 2, Nicktoons, Spike, The N, TV Land, VH1, VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul and CMT: Pure Country.
While the previous contract was valid until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time last night, Hawai‘i programs were scheduled to continue until five hours later, at midnight local time. Video on demand services were set to be cut as well.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that we’re going to have a resolution today before the contract expires,” Pollock said just before 1 p.m. yesterday.
When asked if it was Time Warner’s intent to reach an agreement by the end of the day, Pollock said, “Absolutely. It’s very bad for us (if no agreement is reached).”
“Everybody loses here. We do, our customers do, and they do,” he said, noting that Oceanic would be providing a credit to all customers for a portion of their bill for as long as the blackout lasts.
In a press release just before noon, Viacom responded, “Yet for weeks they’ve ignored our requests for in-person meetings, and even in this late hour they’ve been slow and unresponsive to our outreach. We are ready and prepared to discuss any and all issues that might prevent TWC from imposing a disruption in its customers’ viewing of Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and 16 other channels. There’s no reason TWC should not be engaged in active negotiations at this late hour.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
• Michael Levine, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or via e-mail at mlevine@kauaipubco.com
