Fox an Time Warner Cable struck a deal last night that prevented the unthinkable: no NFL football (and Fox News, and Fox Soccer Channel, etc.) for millions of Americans in the some of the biggest TV markets in America, like New York City and Los Angeles! The terms of the deal weren’t announced, but at last check-in, Time Warner Cable was prepared to give Fox between 20 and 30 cents per subscriber (Fox was asking for $1 per subscriber). You knew the deal was going to happen, didn’t you?
So yeah, Fox had threatened to pull the many channels it owns off Time Warner Cable systems, the biggest ones being New York City, Los Angeles, and Dallas. Fox, looking to make up for the loss of revenue it has seen for a variety of reasons, including a downturn in ad revenue, was looking to bully Time Warner Cable into paying $1 per subscriber in order to have Fox-owned stations on its systems.
Other providers had taken advantage of the mess. Dish Network had been offering next-day installation to people in the affected Time Warner Cable market. (Though let’s face it: it would be a pain in the ass to convince the average New York City landlord to install a dish.)
The beauty is that there may well have been a riot had tomorrow’s NFL games not aired in the affected markets. The lesson is, don’t mess with people’s NFL.
All in all, crisis averted.