TV News: Warner Bros., McG shingle plan more for online series
Read MoreLooks like Cartoon Network is leading the charge at Time Warner, as the cable network plans to roll out an app with which kids can stream the linear network live via iPads, Android tablets and the like.
Read MoreThanks to the intervention of some New York political heavyweights, the seven-week staring contest between MSG Network and Time Warner Cable came to an end on Friday afternoon (Feb. 17). After having refused to negotiate with one another throughout the standoff, Madison Square Garden executive chairman James Dolan and Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt have worked out a preliminary agreement to return the MSG feed to some 1.1 million TWC households in the New York metro area. Dolan and Britt effectively were muscled into a negotiation after City Council speaker Christine Quinn threatened to drag both executives in front of a public hearing, where they would be made to answer to an increasingly aggravated public. In a letter sent to both executives, Quinn on Thursday warned that she’d schedule a hearing before the City Council if a resolution weren’t reached by March. The perceived frontrunner to succeed New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, Quinn deftly played the Jeremy Lin card. “At a time when all New Yorkers are getting together behind Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks, now is the time to resolve this dispute once and for all,” Quinn wrote. An undrafted Harvard grad who has turned the basketball world upside-down since making his first career start for the Knicks, Lin scored 136 points in his first five outings while leading the team to seven straight wins. Also throwing his clout behind New York sports fans was Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who worked the phones this week in a bid to spark a resolution. Late Friday afternoon, the governor confirmed the standoff was over: “I applaud both Mr. Dolan and Mr. Britt and their companies,” he wrote in a statement. “I thank them for being responsive to the needs of New Yorkers.” Quinn soon followed suit with a confirmation of her own. “I want to thank the MSG Network and Time Warner Cable for coming to a deal that will put the Knicks and the Rangers back on TV,” the speaker said.
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Delaying DVD and Blu-ray rental releases to outlets including Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) and Redbox made the magic of Harry Potter even more potent. That was some of the takeaway from Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Inc.‘s fourth-quarter financial report to investors Wednesday. Driven partly by strong disc sales of its eighth and final Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part II, the company reported a 5 percent quarterly spike in revenue to $8.2 billion. Operating income also increased, spiking 17 percent to $1.7 billion for the three-month period ending Dec. 31. Time Warner’s filmed entertainment division
Read MoreBy all measures, Time Warner Cable had a terrific quarter and that was just the opening the National Association of Broadcasters needed to come out swinging against the cable operator for its relentless advocacy of retransmission reform. TWC is one of the main members behind the American Television Alliance, which sends out a constant stream of press releases slamming broadcasters for demanding higher fees from pay TV providers to carry their signals, which it claims leads to higher cable rates. "Given that Time Warner Cable just announced a quarterly net income increase of 44 percent and annual profits of $1.3 billion, it's time for pay TV's poster child for skyrocketing rates to come clean on retransmission consent," said Dennis Wharton, the NAB's scrappy evp of communications. "Time Warner and its front group the ATVA claims that broadcast retransmission consent fees are responsible for escalating cable rates. That claim is false. The fact is that local TV station carriage fees account for less than 1 percent of the cost of a monthly cable bill." Advocates of retransmission reform have made some headway with regulators. Under pressure from TWC, the ATVA and pay TV operators, the Federal Communications Commission reluctantly opened up a proceeding last year to propose some new rules around retransmission reform. But with limited authority, the FCC's proposals stop short of what most advocates would like: forcing broadcasters to allow pay TV providers to carry stations while the two parties work out an agreement. TWC and ATVA did not immediately respond for comment.
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Time Warner Cable is launching a new iPhone application that allows customers to watch live television from their iPhone or iPod Touch device as well as control, manage and program their DVR. With the new app, users can browse the TV guide, favorite channels and search for programs by title or episode name. There is a small catch to all this live TV-viewing, of course: it only works within the home. The app joins TWC’s iPad app, released back in March 2011 and the Android app launched last month. The new iPhone version is actually a universal app, meaning one download now
Read MoreTop News: Spooky drama hails from Warner Bros. TV and Alloy Entertainment
Read MoreTime Warner Cable subscribers in New York are on the verge of losing MSG, the regional sports network that serves up a steady diet of Knicks, Rangers, Islanders and New Jersey Devils games. MSG’s carriage deal with the cable operator is set to expire as the ball drops in Times Square and, despite the approaching deadline, sources say that negotiations essentially have ceased. “Unfortunately, we have not had any recent, meaningful discussions with Time Warner Cable,” MSG said in a statement. “They have rejected every one of our fair proposals for nearly two years, and are unwilling to value our programming in the same manner as other distributors or even engage in good faith negotiations on behalf of their customers.” Sources said a buzzer-beater deal to keep MSG lit up in New York is unlikely. “Knicks fans will almost certainly miss out on the Raptors game [Jan. 2],” said one executive with insight into the situation. For its part, Time Warner Cable said the decision to pull the plug on the RSN rests wholly on MSG’s shoulders. “We will not remove MSG from our New York cable systems,” said Mike Angus, senior vice president, content acquisition for Time Warner Cable, in a statement. “That ball is in MSG’s court, so these channels will come off only if MSG pulls the plug.” Angus said the operator offered to continue to carry MSG through the end of the 2011-12 NBA and NHL seasons, at a 6.5 percent increase—the rate offered by the RSN earlier this summer. According to Time Warner Cable, MSG is now asking for a 53 percent increase in its carriage fee, an assertion the network characterized as factually inaccurate. Per SNL Kagan estimates, operators pay $4.91 per sub per month for the right to carry the RSN’s feeds—$2.63 for MSG and $2.28 for MSG Plus. The costs associated with delivering sports programming have made RSNs some of the priciest channels on the cable dial. In New York, YES Network (Yankees/New Jersey Nets) costs operators $2.99 per sub per month, while SportsNet New York (Mets) carries a fee of $2.55. On average, the cost of carrying a nationally distributed basic-cable network is 26 cents per sub per month
Read MoreIt took a while, but it’s finally a done deal: Time Warner Cable subscribers who also subscribe to Time Warner’s HBO will soon be able to get HBO Go, the pay channel’s Web and mobile service. The two companies say the service will go into a “brief beta trial” and will then be available to all Time Warner Cable subscribers (again, as long as they’re also HBO customers), “in the next month.” Depending on how you look at it, the agreement either extends the reach of Time Warner’s “TV Everywhere” program, or fills an embarrassing hole. Time Warner and Time Warner Cable are two separate companies that split up in 2009, so programming deals between the two aren’t automatic, by any means. But that explanation didn’t do much to appease Time Warner Cable customers who wanted the service . The cable company has 14 million subscribers, making it the country’s second-biggest cable provider after Comcast. Time Warner rolled out HBO Go this summer to very positive reviews; Time Warner says users have downloaded five million apps for Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android devices. Earlier this month, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said that HBO Go users watch up to 50 percent more of the channel’s programming .
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