'Colbert,' 'SpongeBob' may go dark on Time Warner!!!!

[Sick Boy 82]

Holy ^^^^!!!! Viacom may be ending their services with Time Warner Cable tonight!!!! Sorry for all you Time Warner cable peeps!!!!

LOS ANGELES – "SpongeBob SquarePants" might get squeezed off Time Warner Cable.

Media giant Viacom Inc. said its Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 16 other channels will go dark for 13 million subscribers at 12:01 a.m. Thursday if a new carriage fee deal with Time Warner Cable Inc. is not agreed upon by then.

The impasse would mean "SpongeBob" and other popular shows like Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" and Stephen Colbert's "The Colbert Report" will be cut off on the nation's second-largest cable operator. Time Warner Cable primarily serves people in New York state, the Carolinas, Ohio, Southern California and Texas.

Viacom has asked for fee increases of between 22 percent and 36 percent per channel, or a total of $39 million more, an amount that could increase customers' cable bills, said Time Warner Cable spokesman Alex Dudley.

"The issue is that they have asked for an exorbitant increase in their carriage fees and their network ratings are sagging," Dudley said. "Basically we're trying to hold the line for our customer."

Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew disputed the figure, saying Viacom requested an increase in the very low double-digit percentage range.

Viacom said the increases would cost an extra 23 cents a month per subscriber. It said that Americans spend a fifth of their TV time watching Viacom shows but its fees make up less than 2.5 percent of the Time Warner cable bill.

"We make this request because Time Warner Cable has so greatly undervalued our channels for so long," Viacom said.

"Ultimately, however, if Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and the rest of our programming is discontinued — over less than a penny per day — we believe viewers will see this behavior by their cable company as outrageous," Viacom said.

Time Warner Cable's Dudley said Viacom rejected his company's proposal to extend the contract while the sides continue to negotiate.

Instead, Viacom appealed directly to Time Warner Cable's customers, with TV ads in major markets. In Wednesday's New York Times, the company ran a full-page, color advertisement with Nickelodeon's animated bilingual heroine "Dora the Explorer" crying and clinging to her monkey pal, Boots.

"Why is Dora crying?" the ad asks. "Time Warner Cable is taking Dora off the air tonight!" The ad urges viewers to call Time Warner Cable and demand that their favorite shows remain on the air.

If the shows go dark after midnight, Time Warner Cable will send people to the Internet to catch episodes. Dudley said the cable operator also will make available a video teaching people how to hook their computers up to the TV to watch online shows — a tactic it used during a contract dispute with broadcaster LIN TV in October.

Part of the disagreement is that most of Viacom's popular shows are rerun on Web sites where Viacom collects advertising revenue that it does not share with Time Warner, Dudley said. "We don't think that's fair," he said.

Viacom has staked much of its revenue-growth prospects on its ability to extract higher carriage rates out of its cable and satellite affiliates despite an ad slowdown and weak ratings.

In the third quarter, media network revenue, which accounts for about two-thirds of Viacom's total, grew 6 percent to $2.1 billion, despite global ad revenue falling 2 percent, largely because of double-digit percentage growth in affiliate fees and the success of its "Rock Band" video game.

Viacom shares rose 45 cents, 2.3 percent, to $19.71 in late morning trading Wednesday. Time Warner Cable shares lost 39 cents, 1.8 percent, to $21.37.

The channels that would be affected are: Comedy Central, CMT: Pure Country, Logo, Palladia, MTV, MTV 2, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV Tr3s, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nick 2, Nicktoons, Spike, The N, TV Land, VH1, VH1 Classic, and VH1 Soul.

 

[pixletwin]

Damnit. Clancy may be be out of a job again soon.

 

[Kabukiman]

I cannot stand Time Warner for a gazillion reasons. I ordered ATT Uverse, and after 5 hours of messing around with wires and whatnot, the install guy said I couldn't get it because of old wiring or something.

With Uverse, my internets would be twice as fast as what I have now (upload would be something like 4 times faster), I'd have 100 more channels, and 2 DVRs (I just have one currently), unlimited long-distance landline (my landline with Time Warner charges for long distance) all for about $10 less than what I pay now with Time Warner.

 

[karamazov80]

I remember something similar happening with ESPN in the past. It's hard to take sides here, since both companies are greedy money grubbers, who are trying to get the most that they can from cable subscribers.

However, Warner Brothers are a bunch of idiots for not shoring up the Watchmen rights before Fox could start acting the douches (as they are now), so I support Viacom, I guess.

 

[pixletwin]

I could not careless if MTV bit the dust... good riddance.

 

[karamazov80]

I could careless if MTV bit the dust... good riddance.

Oh, you mean that reality TV channel mostly about spoiled rich kids? I couldn't live without it!

 

[Sick Boy 82]

I could care less about all the channels except for Comedy Central and Spike!!!!

Good thing I got Comcast though. Hopefully Viacom won't try to pull this ^^^^ with them too!!!!

And hey all you MTV haters, what about Rob and Big??!! That show is so ^^^^ing hilarious!!! Bobby Light!!!

 

[blue_rogue]

Other than Comedy Central and Spike I wouldn't even notice if all of those channels went missing. And I rarely watch those two as it is, so I could live without them. I don't suppose my cable bill will go down if this happens though.

 

[darthviper107]

Eh, doesn't matter to me, I use DISH.

 

[screamingmetal]

Eh, doesn't matter to me, I use DISH.

So do I.
Which I just found out today got bought up by AT&T.
I'm not sure how this will effect DISH service though.

If I remember right, DISH network also dropped Viacom networks too several years ago, then customers got pissed and the channels came back.
I hope it doesn't happen again in the future, love Comedy Central.

 

[Darth Caedus]

I KNOW, pisses me the ^^^^ off. Some of my favorite channels are going to be gone

 

[Darklord Dave]

The only one I care about is Comedy Central - but I care about that one A LOT. I'm dashing off an email to Time Warner that I'm switching to satellite if they lose Comedy Central.

OF course, as soon as Uverse or FIOS is available in my area, I'm switching anyway - Time Warner Cable is the devil.

 

[Darth Caedus]

The only one I care about is Comedy Central - but I care about that one A LOT. I'm dashing off an email to Time Warner that I'm switching to satellite if they lose Comedy Central.

OF course, as soon as Uverse or FIOS is available in my area, I'm switching anyway - Time Warner Cable is the devil.

Yea, Comedy Central is the one I'm going ot miss. No more Scrubs at 7pm . But a bunch of my buddies have Uverse and it is not much better to be honest.

 

[The Ween]

Holy ^^^^!!!! Viacom may be ending their services with Time Warner Cable tonight!!!! Sorry for all you Time Warner cable peeps!!!!

Yup, it affects me! I could careless about the so-called music channels, but I'll miss my comedy central and spike!

 

[The Ween]

Time Warner is getting the blame for this, but you have to look at their position too. If Viacom raises their prices that much, Time Warner will have to past the cost onto it's subscribers, which would cost them customers.

They had a go round with Fox that cost us here missing a whole month of programming but they too wanted more money. If they all wanted more money and got it, we could no longer afford cable. Sure you could get the dish or whatever, but if people start switching to that in droves, believe me, the prices would go higher there too.

 

[Bat Eater]

Im going to lose Comedy Central and spike?! NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Sick Boy 82]

Yeah, Comedy Central and Spike are the big losses for this. Sucks!!! Hope they get them back to you guys quick!!!!

 

[Kibishii]

I could not careless if MTV bit the dust... good riddance.

We don't have Time Warner Cable, but the only channels that I would notice missing are Comedy Central and Noggin for our four year old.

 

[Bat Eater]

Yeah, Comedy Central and Spike are the big losses for this. Sucks!!! Hope they get them back to you guys quick!!!!

Yeah hopefully, what a great way to start a new year. at least we have the USA channel. Monk, Psych, Burn notice and the re-runs of House

 

[Darklord Dave]

Yes, Viacom are doodieheads for demanding such a huge increase. But it's 23 cents a month per subscriber. Even if I have to pay TWICE that, I think I could swing it.