Time Warner Cable Customers Losing Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and More

[Chardon]

What the hell, I was watching home improvement tonight and i saw this scrolling thing. It basically said timewarner customers will be losing Nickelodeon, i thought to myself, that's weird so i googled it and i found

http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6000&Itemid=99

Viacom Statement on Time Warner Cable Customers Losing Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and More! PDF Print E-mail
Written by Stephanie Sanchez
Tuesday, 30 December 2008

Time Warner Cable are apparently pretty cheap bastards, they are refusing to approve a new contract with the Viacom owned MTV networks, which include Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and many others.

The renewal of the contract would increase the Viacom cut by under a penny a day per subscriber, but as of right now Time Warner Cable customers (who are a huge chunk of cable viewers) will no longer be able to watch any of these networks as of January 1, 2009 12:01am when they go dark.

Unbelievable.

Viacom released an official statement with the details,

NEW YORK, Dec. 30 -- The move by Time Warner Cable to force such channels as Nickelodeon, COMEDY CENTRAL and MTV off the air is another example of a cable company overreaching for profit at the expense of its viewers.

The renewal we are seeking is reasonable and modest relative to the profits TWC enjoys from our networks. We have asked for an increase of less than 25 cents per month, per subscriber, which adds up to less than a penny per day for all 19 of MTV Networks' channels.

We make this request because TWC has so greatly undervalued our channels for so long. Americans spend more than 20% of their TV viewing time watching our networks, yet our fees amount to less than 2.5% of what Time Warner generates from their average customer.

Throughout the country, we have negotiated equitable license agreement renewals, or are in the final stages of renewals, with virtually every cable and satellite carrier. Nevertheless, Time Warner Cable has dismissed our efforts at a fair compromise and has effectively chosen to deny its customers some of the most popular TV shows on the air.

As a result, we are sorry to say that for Time Warner Cable customers our networks will go dark as of 12:01 on January 1st, denying Time Warner customers shows like Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and The Hills.

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. Time Warner Cable subscribers who are being handed a January 1st $3 monthly increase in Raleigh, Orange County, Los Angeles, and New York City are simultaneously facing the removal of beloved shows across 19 channels.

We find it a shame that Time Warner Cable remains unreasonable at this time. We hope its leadership will have a change of heart and will seek to negotiate a fair renewal agreement.

Just for reference, I've posted the total list of the MTV Network. TWC subscribers will be those channels that run on their cable on January 1 if they don't come to an agreement on the renewal tomorrow with Viacom.

MTV NETWORKS

ATOMFILMS
ADDICTINGGAMES
CMT
COMEDY CENTRAL
GAMETRAILERS
HARMONIX
LOGO
MTV
MTV2
MTVN INTERNATIONAL
MTVU
MTV TR3S
NEOPETS
NICKELODEON - NICK JR.
NICK AT NITE
NOGGIN
PARENTSCONNECT
QUIZILLA
RHAPSODY
SHOCKWAVE
SPIKE
THE N
TV LAND
VH1
VH1 CLASSIC
VH1 SOUL
VIRTUAL WORLDS
XFIRE

 

[TheISHT]

MTV blows, Comedy Central going out kinda sucks, I'll live

 

[Funny Man Rocco]

I actually just saw that scrolling now while watching comedy central, and I was like wtf? They gave a number to call has anyone called it?

This is some pretty big BS.

 

[theSTEREO.]

Dude, this is BULL CRAP!

You gotta be kidding me.

I tried calling Time Warner, but all their lines say they are having 'Technical Difficulty'.

The number they're asking people to call an complain is (800) 762-3786.

However, you can also call the Time Warner Office of the President. That number is (212) 364-8200. Through that you can reach the Executive Customer Care, the highest customer service level you can get to for Time Warner.

If they drop these channels, it's madness.

 

[gourimoko]

What the hell, I was watching home improvement tonight and i...

You were doing what??!

 

[Chardon]

This is from someone who works for viacom i know.

VIACOM is at fault. They have to sell ad time for their shows to pay for them. Well, they make crappy shows and we are in a recession so they can't sell ad time so easily any more. So, they want to charge us more to put them on our services which in turn makes us have to charge more. We do not want to charge more so they are at a stalemate in negotiations. Calling TWC won't do a darn thing like Viacom's lovely scrolling message wants you to believe. For the record as well, unless Dish or Direct TV raised their rates they too would also be at stalemate of thier contract was us.


So enough with the TWC hate, we are fighting for you and I would appreciate it if people would spread the word so I don't have to been in Hell all day tommorow.

 

[Funny Man Rocco]

You were doing what??!

Home Improvement is pretty bad ass

 

[TheAdmin]

This is from someone who works for viacom i know.

Sounds like he works for Time Warner and not Viacom.

 

[theSTEREO.]

Home Improvement is pretty bad ass

AAAGHHUUUAHH?!

 

[Man Called X]

Time Warner is notoriously cheap when it comes to these contracts. They've always forced below market contracts with them because of the amount of coverage TW has.

But if I recall, Viacom pulled this crap in 2004 with Dish Network, except at the time Viacom still owned CBS. Dish Network lost all those channels + CBS for like 2 days, and then a new contract was hammered out quickly.

I wouldn't be too concerned about it.

 

[The Oi]

People should be happy to lose MTV. Andrew Siciliano was on Rome yesterday and communicated my EXACT thoughts perfectly.

He was talking about flipping through the channels and catching a snippet of Brody Jenner in a hot tub with 4 other shirtless dudes. He turned it off and asked someone about what it was later on, to discover that Brody has a show patterned after Paris's where these idiots compete to become someone's "friend".

He then went on a diatribe about how stupid these guys were and how people who watched it were even more stupid, borderline retarded. I was laughing my ass off because it was so true.

There are NO shows on MTV worth watching. It's a shame because when I was a kid that's all I used to watch for all the Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc. videos.

 

[Widowmaker]

I've been looking for a reason to switch over to Direct TV or Dish. I love Time Warner's annual rate hikes.

 

[theSTEREO.]

This is from someone who works for viacom i know.

VIACOM is at fault. They have to sell ad time for their shows to pay for them. Well, they make crappy shows and we are in a recession so they can't sell ad time so easily any more. So, they want to charge us more to put them on our services which in turn makes us have to charge more. We do not want to charge more so they are at a stalemate in negotiations. Calling TWC won't do a darn thing like Viacom's lovely scrolling message wants you to believe. For the record as well, unless Dish or Direct TV raised their rates they too would also be at stalemate of thier contract was us.


So enough with the TWC hate, we are fighting for you and I would appreciate it if people would spread the word so I don't have to been in Hell all day tommorow.

Well, that's just another helping of Bullcrap because I got a letter from TWC about a month ago saying that all their rates are going up in January.

So, so much for that theory.

 

[Chardon]

Sounds like he works for Time Warner and not Viacom.

Yea my bad.

I could care less about MTV and some of those channels. But Comedy Central and NICK. Im pretty sure they will get a deal soon or people(and parents) will flip.

And who doesnt want to watch the spongebob episode when he got drunk off of Icecream?

 

[-Akronite-]

Dish FTW!