Time Warner OKs Arbitration With Fox
"American Idol," "House" may stay on air if Fox agrees.
Dec. 30, 2009 — -- The battle of wills between Fox and Time Warner Cable continues.
In the latest twist of a fee dispute that has raged publicly for weeks, Time Warner Cable has offered to submit to binding arbitration by the Federal Communications Commission and take any other necessary steps to spare its customers a Fox blackout.
"We are willing to commence an arbitration proceeding immediately before the FCC," Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt wrote in a letter to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who, as chair of a Senate subcommittee that deals with television, has been pleading with both companies to reach a deal.
A copy of Britt's letter also was sent to Chase Carey, chief operating officer of Fox parent company News Corp.
News Corp. and Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 U.S. cable operator, are in the midst of negotiating a fee contract that expires at midnight on Dec. 31. If a deal can't be reached, News Corp. threatens to pull its content from Time Warner customers, including hit shows such as "American Idol," "House" and the NFL playoffs.
News Corp. reportedly is asking for an increase of $1 per month per subscriber. With 13 million subscribers, this would hit Time Warner with a $13 million monthly rate hike.
News Corp. CEO Carey sent a memo today to his staff indicating little hope that a deal will be reached.
"At this time, it looks like we will not reach an agreement and our channels may very well go off the air," Carey wrote in the memo.
He added that any extension to the negotiations simply would give Time Warner more cheap access to Fox shows.
"The fact is we've been trying since the summer to negotiate a fair deal and that further extensions simply extend the period of time that Time Warner profits from our marquee programming," Carey wrote.
A spokeswoman for Time Warner Cable said her company still is hoping for the best.
"From our point of view, negotiations are ongoing and we continue to hope that Fox won't punish our customers by taking their programming off the air," said Time Warner spokeswoman Maureen Huff.
These negotiations have been making headlines for months now, in part because of an ad battle between the two companies.
This week, Time Warner started running dramatic ads in ransom-style lettering in newspapers around the country.
"Pay our price or you'll never see Fox again," reads a Time Warner Cable ad.
Fox responded with ads of its own: "No Fox? No Way," read News Corp.'s ads over a collage of pictures featuring its hit shows, including "NFL on Fox," "American Idol," "24," "House" and "The Simpsons."
The public spat began in November, when Time Warner launched an ad campaign airing its grievances against programmers and asked viewers to vote on whether Time Warner should "roll over" and cough up the higher fees, or whether it should "get tough."
Kerry has been trying to help both sides reach a deal.
"Fox and Time Warner need to strike a deal," Kerry recently said. "Millions of football fans are depending on it."
If Fox pulls its content in January, it wouldn't be the first time a programmer used viewers -- who usually direct their anger at their cable company, not the content provider -- as a pawn in negotiations.
"It's an ongoing war," said Carl Howe, director of media consumer research at the Yankee Group. "Distributors want as much of the money as possible, and the people who create the content want their share."
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