Cable TV standoffs threaten viewing costs, choices
Many questions remain for cable TV viewers nationwide even after Fox and Time Warner Cable settled their noisy spat with a New Year's Day agreement.
The deal was good news for more than 6 million Time Warner customers in the short term: College bowl and National Football League games, "American Idol" and a host of other popular Fox programs in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Orlando, Fla., and other markets are appearing on their screens as usual.
Sharri Genens of Redondo Beach, Calif., was among the Time Warner customers who were relieved. She said she was extremely upset when she heard she might lose Fox.
"I would have dropped cable entirely if they'd done that," said Genens, 39. "I would have just gone to somebody else to pay more, done whatever I needed to do to get my shows" - including football.
Fox had threatened to ***** Time Warner Cable and Bright House to drop its signal from 14 of its TV stations and a half-dozen of its cable channels if Time Warner didn't increase payments to Fox in a contract that took effect Friday. The deal affects close to half its customers. Time Warner is the nation's second-largest cable provider after Comcast Corp.
