The fight between Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) and Fox over what the cable company will pay the network for programming is not about to end soon. On New Year’s Eve, most of the content Fox produces will not be available to the subscribers of the second largest cable company in the US. A Fox executive went so far as to say “it looks like we will not reach an agreement and our channels may very well go off the air in Time Warner Cable systems at midnight [Dec. 31].”
Fox wants at least $1 per subscriber in exchange for its programs. TWC says that the transaction would not be profitable for it at that price.
In the scheme of things, TWC subscribers will lose access to “American Idol”, “24”, and regional broadcasts of college football. These shows, like professional wrestling and reality TV, target idiots who sit in US homes glued in front of wide-screen plasma sets instead of reading the Bible, Shakespeare, or Ulysses. The stand-off between Fox and TWC may be the best thing that has happened to undereducated citizens in years.
It says something about the American appetite for news when the dominant story in the press during the holidays is about whether people can watch amateurs be insulted by judges as they vie for the “American Idol” title. It is a tell that Americans could have their break from work and the troubles of daily life shattered by not having access to TV shows.
TWC can’t afford to lose unhappy subscribers and Fox needs the fees from the cable company. The dispute will be settled quickly which makes American society all the poorer.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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