Hearst Blackouts: Sick All Over Again « Time Warner Cable Untangled

Jul 10 2012

Hearst Blackouts: Sick All Over Again

As soon as I get over a cold, I think it’s the last one I’ll ever have. So when the inevitable headache, sneezing and crippling sinus pain crops up again, there’s this layer of existential disappointment on top of the actual discomfort. “Come on, body,” I always think “why do you have to turn on me like this AGAIN?”

That’s pretty much what’s going on with our relationship with Hearst right now, too. It’s the same old head-cramps and noseblowing that is part of the cable/TV business in the 21st century. It spreads itself all over the programming landscape, too. The same stuff is happening to Dish and AMC, DirecTV and Viacom right now, and it’s hard to imagine that it’s the last time they’ll be dealing with this stuff, either.

This time, Hearst Television has chosen to black out their signals from our customers rather than continue negotiations, despite their CEO saying just two weeks ago that broadcaster blackouts are unfair to consumers.

Time Warner Cable has reached hundreds of agreements with other broadcasters without broadcaster blackouts, but Hearst’s demand for a nearly 300% increase is way out of line. That kind of outrageous increase is unfair to our customers and unsustainable for our business.

Our customers seem to agree with us, too – here are a few comments from WLWT’s (in Cincinnati) site:

In order to keep rates down, the cable providers also need to keep programming costs down, but that won’t happen as long as the broadcasters keep up with this method of extortion. I’m not crazy about paying for a tv service that I can watch for free with an antenna.

People are getting mad at twc but this is why their bill goes up all the time. These channels holding them hostage. There’s nothing worth watching on wlwt anyway except the news and Sunday night football and I can go to a sports bar for that. Good riddence wlwt!

We believe broadcaster blackouts are wrong. Despite Hearst’s blackout, we stand ready to continue negotiations and are hopeful that the channel will be returned to the lineup shortly.

The following channels in the following areas are unfortunately subject to Hearst’s blackout:

Hawaii KITV-ABC
Boston WCVB-ABC
Portland ME WMTW-ABC
Hartford VT WNNE-NBC
Plattsburgh NY WPTZ-NBC
Plattsburgh NY WPTZ-D2 –This TV
Winston-Salem NC WXII-NBC
Kansas City MO KCWE-CW
Kansas City MO KMBC-ABC
Lincoln NE KETV-ABC
Louisville KY WLKY-CBS
Cincinnati OH WLWT-NBC
Pittsburgh PA WTAE-ABC

We hate this situation worse than a summer cold. Colds are a lot cheaper, for one thing. We’ve got a little metaphorical nasal spray here to get most people over this hump until we’ve figured out a deal, though:

1) Most people can get local news, weather and traffic on other, competing stations or online.
2) All of the channels are available for free over the air and at least one is streaming its newscast online for free. It’s a real shame that Hearst is asking for a 300% increase from us an simultaneously offering their content for free, but that’s where we are.
3) Many of the affected network shows can be found on Hulu and Netflix.
4) Where possible, we’ve imported the signals of missing big-four stations from other markets in order to lighten the loss of the network programming. Nearly half of affected customers have a replacement signal.
5) ~~WISN in Milwaukee is still on the air, leaving those customers unaffected.~~ WISN is now dark, too.

We’re working hard to get this situation overwith as quickly as possible. Just like a head cold, it’s going to go away soon enough, but it might feel like forever while we’re all in the thick of it and blowing our way through the mess.

Categories: Content Delivery, Customer Care, Fact-Checking, Programming, Retransmission Consent

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9 Responses to “Hearst Blackouts: Sick All Over Again”

J. Breneman
Jul 10, 2012
at 5:56 pm

Your blackout of KMBC TV in Kansas City is ridiculous – it’s encouraging me to switch to U-Verse, which I will probably do within the next two weeks if you can’t get this resolved.
Scott
Jul 10, 2012
at 11:17 pm

Take a pill & get over it. As usual TWC is not to blame as they never do anything wrong. It’s always the other guy. TWC controls who goes on their cable network not Hearst. If TWC wanted Hearst’s stations to air, they would would work it out with them. Don’t try & pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. TWC is making big $$$ & are greedy too. If there was another cable company in our area, the majority of consumers would leave TWC for that company. This Hearst deal isn’t the first issue with stations. It dropped WBZ in Boston, the same year that station became the NE Patriots official station. Thus blacking out games for that year. This was TWC’s doing not WBZ. So don’t believe that TWC is the victim here. The public are the victim & TWC is the route cause.
50thStateofMind
Jul 11, 2012
at 9:50 am

Taking a negotiation to the “Extreme Nuclear Option” is not such a sure thing?

I’m sure ABC’s Licensing Negotiators are a Hardcore Group of Commandos, Attorneys and Killers folks accountable to no-one—

On the other hand ABC’s Advertising Department does have a Higher Authority it is accountable too— Product Manufacturers and Companies who pay to run ads and Commercials.

So perhaps someone who is sympthytc to our plight and still gets ABC could list for the rest of us the names of these Companies who by advertising show their indirect support for these Terroristic tactics.

We Cable Viewers can then go to their Advertisers and inform them they lost our Loyalty and for every week we remain blacked out – One Year will go by before we consider purchasing their products again !
Now Where’s That List ?
Deanna Thate
Jul 11, 2012
at 2:12 pm

I agree.What happend to letting us know about the blackout via email. We all fought when Fox and ESPN had their negotation.
Justin
Jul 11, 2012
at 7:00 pm

Enough of this “he said, she said” nonsense. One of you (TWC/Hearst) is lying. I don’t care who. Just work this out.

Both of you are deciding to sling mud instead of solve the problem. Like a couple of 2 yr olds. Stop pointing fingers. You are both making yourselves look VERY bad.

Seriously considering switcing to DirecTV. I’m more confident in their chances of working out a deal with Viacom then this whole fiasco.
J Sullivan
Jul 11, 2012
at 8:24 pm

Why is TWC not directing us, the consumer, to file complaints directly to Hearst. I would be willing to send off a letter to them to come to the table in good faith.
Tony
Jul 12, 2012
at 9:02 am

I once switched to DirecTV over a similar dispute… instead of simply hooking a 20 dollar antenna up to my TV to get the *free* over-the-air network that I had lost – I could have even gone to Time Warner and gotten a free antenna given to me. It cost me $400 to cancel a few months and several rain outages later…
T Attenborough
Jul 13, 2012
at 10:30 pm

I just want my MeTV back! PLease!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elizabeth
Jul 16, 2012
at 11:05 am

Unless you work for TWC/TWCBC and are part of this process, it would be wise not to comment. Telecommunications companies like TWC are in the business of bringing content to customers to make them happy. Why would they hold customers for ransom and keep them from seeing the content they want to watch? Hearst, and any other company that plays hardball with demanding price increases, are leading you to believe they are not the problem. You fell right into the trap.

You’ve been vocal about the challenge, now what is your solution? If it’s that easy to put yourself in TWC’s shoes, I would love to see this solution.