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Time Warner Cable Prices Increase w/ Sinclair Dispute

Via Directsattv.com - Consumers are Held Hostage in the Time Warner, Sinclair Fee Dispute
Currently, Time Warner is in a dispute with Sinclair Broadcast Group over an increase in carriage fees. Carriage fees are the fees that a cable company pays to a broadcasting company to air the stations it runs. Sinclair would like to increase the carriage rate by approximately one cent per household, per day. If no agreement is reached by Time Warner and Sinclair by December 31st, Time Warner could lose the right to broadcast all of its Fox affiliates. This would leave Time Warner cable customers unable to watch popular shows such as Glee and American Idol. Time Warner cable prices could also increase for the millions of cable customers it services.

According to a Sinclair spokesperson, the fee increase that they are requesting amounts to less than 1% of the average Time Warner Cable prices paid by its customers. Additionally, the Sinclair spokesperson pointed out that with the proposed increase in place, Time Warner Cable would still pay less to broadcast Fox and its affiliate stations than other much less popular television programming. Sinclair believes that the increase should not affect Time Warner cable prices dramatically.

The Sinclair spokesperson seemed truly incredulous about Time Warner Cable's refusal to renew the broadcasting contract with such a nominal increase in carriage fees in place. Still, it is important to remember that even a penny per day could increase Time Warner Cable prices since the company services over 26 million homes. Sinclair remains unconvinced about the real reason that Time Warner will not renew its contract at the higher rate. Sinclair believes that Time Warner is trying to force a show down and get the government involved. According to Sinclair, Time Warner's underlying agenda is to have legislation introduced into Congress that would benefit Time Warner's bottom line.

An impasse such as this can leave the cable customer in the black, quite literally. Sinclair is looking to increase its revenue by increasing the amount of carriage fees that Time Warner currently pays to broadcast its stations. So, in turn, Time Warner will attempt to pass on the additional cost to its customers by increasing Time Warner's cable prices. The customers will then get angry about higher cable bills. In this kind of dispute the government may need to step in to ensure that the carriage fee policies are fair, and customers have access to the television programing that they want to watch regardless of the provider.

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