Post by Skaggs on Mar 12, 2004 15:46:44 GMT -5
Highly Defined Fightin': Time Warner Cable Blasts ESPN Net
2003-09-26 17:33 (New York)
Time Warner Cable's negotiations to carry ESPN HD have hit an impasse over several issues, including the all-sports net's demand to charge 80 cents/sub for a service that TWC argues is basically a multicast of the analog service, which costs more than $2/sub.
"There's no new content," programming chief Fred Dressler contends. "They're the same games, just re-broadcast. Our subscribers won't miss any games if we don't take their HD net." ESPN defends its stance, pointing to consumer surveys that consistently show sports as the topic with the highest HD interest. A potential solution could come from packaging ESPN HD with In Demand's HD nets, something Dressler said he wants "at a minimum" and something ESPN says it allows. But another front has opened. Dressler complains ESPN no longer is allowing TW Cable to pay for ESPN HD, opting instead for renegotiating its entire relationship with the MSO. ESPN rankled TWC execs when it offered to renegotiate long-term agreements the 2 signed in '99-the same deals TWC signed after a bitter retrans battle with ESPN parent Disney [DIS]. "We have long-term agreements that they forced us into, and now they want to re-open them all," Dressler said. Once TW Cable rejected ESPN's original offer for ESPN HD, the new net became "part of a broader negotiation," ESPN's Sean Bratches says. The dispute centers around a fundamental difference between how the 2 sides think HD services should be rolled out. ESPN thinks operators should not give away high-quality content that consumers would buy. TW Cable believes HD services - particularly ones that don't offer new content-should be added-value to existing digital subs. "Nobody charged customers anything extra to move from black-and-white to color," Dressler said. "We'd charge customers for a new product. Not for a simulcast product." TW Cable offers the broadcast nets, Discovery, HBO and Showtime in HD for free, not even billing subs for the extra equipment. It plans to roll out a Fox Sports HD channel this fall, and is talking with HD Net. - In the 6 months since its launch, ESPN HD has cut deals with Comcast [CMCSA], Cox [COX], Insight [ICCI], NCTC, RCN [RCNC], plus the DBS operators EchoStar [DISH] and DirecTV. Interestingly, it hasn't signed with Cablevision [CVC], which also offers HD channels free to digital subs.
FOR MORE INFORMATION on this or any other story from CableFAX, September 26, 2003, please call PBI Media, LLC's Client Service Department at 800/777-5006. [Copyright 2003 PBI Media, LLC. All rights reserved.]
This article can be found here.
2003-09-26 17:33 (New York)
Time Warner Cable's negotiations to carry ESPN HD have hit an impasse over several issues, including the all-sports net's demand to charge 80 cents/sub for a service that TWC argues is basically a multicast of the analog service, which costs more than $2/sub.
"There's no new content," programming chief Fred Dressler contends. "They're the same games, just re-broadcast. Our subscribers won't miss any games if we don't take their HD net." ESPN defends its stance, pointing to consumer surveys that consistently show sports as the topic with the highest HD interest. A potential solution could come from packaging ESPN HD with In Demand's HD nets, something Dressler said he wants "at a minimum" and something ESPN says it allows. But another front has opened. Dressler complains ESPN no longer is allowing TW Cable to pay for ESPN HD, opting instead for renegotiating its entire relationship with the MSO. ESPN rankled TWC execs when it offered to renegotiate long-term agreements the 2 signed in '99-the same deals TWC signed after a bitter retrans battle with ESPN parent Disney [DIS]. "We have long-term agreements that they forced us into, and now they want to re-open them all," Dressler said. Once TW Cable rejected ESPN's original offer for ESPN HD, the new net became "part of a broader negotiation," ESPN's Sean Bratches says. The dispute centers around a fundamental difference between how the 2 sides think HD services should be rolled out. ESPN thinks operators should not give away high-quality content that consumers would buy. TW Cable believes HD services - particularly ones that don't offer new content-should be added-value to existing digital subs. "Nobody charged customers anything extra to move from black-and-white to color," Dressler said. "We'd charge customers for a new product. Not for a simulcast product." TW Cable offers the broadcast nets, Discovery, HBO and Showtime in HD for free, not even billing subs for the extra equipment. It plans to roll out a Fox Sports HD channel this fall, and is talking with HD Net. - In the 6 months since its launch, ESPN HD has cut deals with Comcast [CMCSA], Cox [COX], Insight [ICCI], NCTC, RCN [RCNC], plus the DBS operators EchoStar [DISH] and DirecTV. Interestingly, it hasn't signed with Cablevision [CVC], which also offers HD channels free to digital subs.
FOR MORE INFORMATION on this or any other story from CableFAX, September 26, 2003, please call PBI Media, LLC's Client Service Department at 800/777-5006. [Copyright 2003 PBI Media, LLC. All rights reserved.]
This article can be found here.