Time Warner/TM4 carriage dispute

[budda]

Post got hijacked and side tracked. I am sorry for confusion. Something to do with feelings? I feel like watching. "The Notebook"

[gparris]

They have extended negotiations till July 10th:

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/entertainment/213591991.html

Jack

In case anyone's still interested, Channel 4 news WTMJ just reported that as of midnight tonight Time Warner Cable is pulling channel 4 and 1004 and their weather channel 999 (on my Racine system).
They said if you can get them OTA, please do so.
Looks like channel 5 for me in Chicago for now.

[mrschimpf]

In case anyone's still interested, Channel 4 news WTMJ just reported that as of midnight tonight Time Warner Cable is pulling channel 4 and 1004 and their weather channel 999 (on my Racine system).
They said if you can get them OTA, please do so.
Looks like channel 5 for me in Chicago for now.

Actually it's been revised; the main channel 4 will stay on through the end of sweeps on July 24 (some kind of nonsense loophole for a sweeps period nobody cares about), but...oh no, Time Warner customers will lose access to Storm Team 4 TV and the Live Well Network because that isn't protected by the loophole.:bang:

Journal has managed to come off as slow and cloying during this entire period of negotiation. They took off the annoying ticker and their FAQ making it seem like it's OK, but now they're making it seem like they'll just go to the end with Time Warner before they have to lose their access. It's laughable to scare viewers with the loss of robo-weather duplicated by 10.4 and now on 58.4, and shows that are easily outclassed by Create on 36.4; all they're doing is bringing themselves parity to other customers in the market, who have never had access to 4.2 or 4.3 because of TWC exclusivity.

[mrschimpf]

Seems like an odd coincidence, but suddenly I'm not seeing WTMJ 4.1 here on Charter in Sheboygan. Hopefully it's just a Charter hiccup, and not Journal cutting off their .2 and .3 signals to TWC and forgetting that Charter gets their signals from TWC's headend and also turning off .1 (I think, going by the problems with Hearst last year with TWC).

ETA - Yup, Journal's tech team or TWC pulled a dumb move last night. Oostburg in TWC territory and some of the Waukesha County Charter communities, along with Beaver Dam are also without 4.1 this morning going by Facebook and Twitter. What a mess.

[LoadStar]

Seems like an odd coincidence, but suddenly I'm not seeing WTMJ 4.1 here on Charter in Sheboygan. Hopefully it's just a Charter hiccup, and not Journal cutting off their .2 and .3 signals to TWC and forgetting that Charter gets their signals from TWC's headend and also turning off .1 (I think, going by the problems with Hearst last year with TWC).

ETA - Yup, Journal's tech team or TWC pulled a dumb move last night. Oostburg in TWC territory and some of the Waukesha County Charter communities, along with Beaver Dam are also without 4.1 this morning going by Facebook and Twitter. What a mess.

My guess is that was intentional by TWC. They probably pulled WTMJ from areas that aren't officially in the WTMJ broadcast area, but where TWC carried it anyway. TWC is only obligated to carry WTMJ in the normal broadcast area, and in fact, is probably *prohibited* from carrying it outside that area. TWC likely didn't have a choice in the matter.

[grenier]

I had two recordings going last night, one was Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (on TMJ4). The movie I recorded is fine, it went from 11pm to 1am but Jimmy Fallon only recorded for 23 minutes, until 11:58pm.

[mrschimpf]

My guess is that was intentional by TWC. They probably pulled WTMJ from areas that aren't officially in the WTMJ broadcast area, but where TWC carried it anyway. TWC is only obligated to carry WTMJ in the normal broadcast area, and in fact, is probably *prohibited* from carrying it outside that area. TWC likely didn't have a choice in the matter.

They did come back, but like I said many of these homes were Charter homes with nothing to do with the Time Warner conflicts, and don't receive TMJ's subchannels. Beaver Dam is in the Milwaukee market, along with the Lake Country, and all are with Charter. 4.1 should not have had a thing done at all.

[gparris]

Actually it's been revised; the main channel 4 will stay on through the end of sweeps on July 24 (some kind of nonsense loophole for a sweeps period nobody cares about), but...oh no, Time Warner customers will lose access to Storm Team 4 TV and the Live Well Network because that isn't protected by the loophole.:bang:

Journal has managed to come off as slow and cloying during this entire period of negotiation. They took off the annoying ticker and their FAQ making it seem like it's OK, but now they're making it seem like they'll just go to the end with Time Warner before they have to lose their access. It's laughable to scare viewers with the loss of robo-weather duplicated by 10.4 and now on 58.4, and shows that are easily outclassed by Create on 36.4; all they're doing is bringing themselves parity to other customers in the market, who have never had access to 4.2 or 4.3 because of TWC exclusivity.

They started their annoying ticker again and give us "updates" along with their VP doing some announcement, too, even more annoying.

[Jack 1000]

This was posted last night regarding each side of the dispute.  It's always the customers that have to be pawns in these retransmission wars:

http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/blog/2013/07/wexler-time-warner-twists-the.html?page=all

Jack

[mrschimpf]

They started their annoying ticker again and give us "updates" along with their VP doing some announcement, too, even more annoying.

I love how they presented it as a "Today's TMJ4 Editorial", as if it was on par with one of Bill Taylor's Positively Milwaukee commentaries, and that poor Wexler couldn't even deliver it from the set, but had to stand behind a greenscreen picture of it.

Compared to Hearst's organized and not-annoying campaign that made TWC look like the bad guys last year, Journal makes themselves look silly. WGBA's ticker is worse though, taking four minutes to scroll through the JBG boilerplate.

[murdoc]

There are 3 other stations that I can get my "news" and weather from.  I watch all my NBC programming on Hulu on my own terms.  No loss here.  Go outside and enjoy the short summer.

[ddeerrff]

There's NBC programming worth watching??

[ArgMeMatey]

No loss here.  Go outside and enjoy the short summer.

Amen.  Who at JBG negotiated a July contract expiration?  They need to bargain for n years plus three or six months to get some leverage.  

With digital boxes, TW can probably get a pretty good idea how many of their customers are not watching 4.1, let alone 4.2 and 4.3.

[PONIES]

There's NBC programming worth watching??

America's Got Talent and Community.

[mrschimpf]

Amen.  Who at JBG negotiated a July contract expiration?  They need to bargain for n years plus three or six months to get some leverage.  

With digital boxes, TW can probably get a pretty good idea how many of their customers are not watching 4.1, let alone 4.2 and 4.3.

Probably timed to the fiscal year (beginning in July) rather than any other sane equivalent, same as Hearst and a couple years back LIN with WLUK. Other groups like Fox and NBC go by the chronological year. At least here though nobody will care really until the Packers preseason games come on in August. At worst, September when the new TV season starts, and if Journal is just plain insane, October 27, when the Packers have their first SNF game of the season. In that case though, the Packers would have to seriously think about whether having all their eggs in the Journal basket in Milwaukee and Green Bay is worth it, so Journal would not go too far and have to come to some agreement.