Time Warner Cable and CBS Kiss and Make Up — Dueling Press Releases

CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS) and Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks have reached an agreement for carriage of CBS owned stations on Time Warner Cable systems across the country, as well as Showtime Networks, CBS Sports Network and Smithsonian Channel, it was announced today by representatives for the companies. Programming on all networks will resume at 6:00 PM, ET today.  Though specific terms of the deal are not being disclosed, the agreement includes retransmission consent, as well as Showtime Anytime and VOD, for CBS stations on Time Warner Cable systems in New York (WCBS and WLYW), Los Angeles (KCBS and KCAL) and Dallas (KTVT and KTXA.)

From Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC):

We can’t even tell you how happy it makes us to write this:

Our long, frustrating blackout with the CBS Corporation is now over. We have reached an agreement that returns CBS and CBS-owned programming to your channel lineup. We’re restoring the programming as fast as we can – everyone will have it back within the next 24 hours.

As in all of our negotiations, our main goal was to hold down costs and retain our ability to deliver a great video experience for our customers. We’re pleased that we successfully achieved both.

We know these disputes are frustrating, and we’re sorry they have to happen. But we hope the short-term pain is worth the long-term gain of keeping your costs down and providing the best possible viewing experience.

It’s also really encouraging that over 50 consumer organizations and legislators have joined us in calling for Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to reassess the 21-year-old rules that allow this sort of broadcaster brinksmanship to happen in the first place. We hope that Congress and the FCC will pay attention to this growing call to action and reform these outdated laws.

Nobody likes it when fights like these happen – not the networks, not our customers, and certainly not our hardworking employees who absorb a lot of understandable frustration until these get resolved.

But most of all, we’d like to thank our customers for their patience, loyalty and understanding. Without customers, we wouldn’t have a business – and that’s why we fight to keep costs as low as possible.