Cable TV standoffs threaten viewing costs, choices

CHICAGO -- Many questions remain for cable TV viewers nationwide even after Fox and Time Warner Cable settled their 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 and other markets are appearing on their screens as usual.

Fox had threatened to force 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.

Neither Cablevision nor Scripps responded immediately Saturday to questions about the status of talks. Representatives of Time Warner and Fox declined requests to comment.

Fox had demanded to $1 per cable subscriber per month for programming it used to give away, saying it no longer can afford to offer programming free when cable channels earn subscriber fees.

Fox didn't get all it wanted, but Chase Carey, chief operating officer at News Corp., said Friday the agreement "recognizes the value of our programming."

Time Warner continued to carry Food Network and Great American Country as its talks with Scripps went on.

And cable company Mediacom Communications Corp. will keep carrying Fox and CBS signals from Sinclair Broadcasting Group Inc. stations in markets such as Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in a temporary deal that extends to next Friday.

Telephone messages left for Sinclair and Mediacom on Saturday were not immediately returned.

The standoffs refocused attention on the law that let broadcasters start charging fees cable and satellite operators for their programs.

Advocacy groups and some politicians oppose the 1994 law because it lets both cable operators and content producers pass along to consumers the cost of programs they could watch for free when broadcast dominated the television market.

"I think there needs to be some sort of government oversight over the cable industry," Mindy Spatt, spokeswoman for The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco consumer advocacy group, said Saturday. "There's a danger for consumers that the price is just going to keep rising with no end in sight."

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in a statement that broadcasters and cable operators should be able to reach terms without "consumers being put in the cross hairs."

The prospect of lawmakers stepping in to take action ultimately may have persuaded Fox to settle, according to Time Warner Cable.

"Engagement by key policy makers ... focused on protecting consumers, was instrumental in preventing unnecessary consumer disruption," said company spokeswoman Maureen Huff.

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AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima in Los Angeles contributed to this story.