Time Warner Cable Continues Negotiations With CBS On Programming Fees

(RTTNews) - Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) announced Monday that it has agreed to an extension with CBS Corp. (CBS-A, CBS) until Friday, August 2 at 5pm ET while it continues negotiations.

Time Warner Cable said that CBS is asking TWC to pay 600% more to buy CBS programming directly from them in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas than TWC pay to buy their programming from other companies in dozens of other cities across the country.

"That's wrong. It's unreasonable to expect our customers to pay a 600% premium in a handful of cities, and so we are negotiating very hard for a reasonable price," Time Warner Cable said.

TWC noted that it is going to continue to negotiate and hope to come to a reasonable resolution before its deadline, so that its customers don't have to endure yet another broadcaster blackout.

Earlier today, Time Warner Cable stated that the outrageous demands for fees by CBS have forced Time Warner Cable to remove several of its networks and broadcast stations from its customers' lineups. As of midnight eastern, Time Warner Cable customers in New York City, Dallas and Los Angeles will no longer receive their local CBS broadcast stations.

In addition, Time Warner Cable said it has been forced to remove Showtime, TMC, Flix and Smithsonian from its lineups across the country. TWC said it offered to pay reasonable increases, but CBS's demands are out of line and unfair - and they want Time Warner Cable to pay more than others pay for the same programming.