Time Warner Cable subscriber? Brace yourself - THE DAILY SHOW may be on the chopping block

[derby378]

"Spongebob Squarepants," "Dora the Explorer" and Jon Stewart soon might be pulled off Time Warner Cable systems in Los Angeles and around the country if the cable operator and Viacom Inc. cannot reach a new contract before midnight tomorrow. The move could knock Viacom's cable channels, which include Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central off nearly 2 million households in Los Angeles...

Viacom's license agreement with Time Warner Cable, which serves 12.3 million homes in the U.S., is set to expire at midnight Wednesday. If no deal is reached, Time Warner must take the Viacom channels off its cable systems and use alternative programming instead.

"Advertising revenue stinks so they are looking to stick our customers for the difference," said Alex Dudley, Time Warner Cable spokesman. "They are holding our customers hostage for a bunch of networks with sagging ratings and only one or two good channels. We have to hold the line for our customers."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2008/12/viacom-threaten.html

[n2doc]

1. "Alternative Programing" = endless informercial channels

bleah. Glad I don't have cable of any kind.

[DS1]

2. torrents will really take off if this happens

It's how I've been watching the show for the last few years-commercial-free, I must add

So Time Warner will just pay for their customers using extra bandwidth. Stupid. Plus it'll only hasten the death of Blu-Ray when people figure out what else is available for download, legally or not.

[graywarrior]

3. Another reason to cancel cable

I'm house sitting, and I get every channel there is included in the deal. There is NOTHING on. I hate it. I could spend 4 hours flipping through channels and end up watching Seinfeld. The only show I care about is LOST. Guess I'll just rent videos if I want to see some tv show. Other than that, it's a total waste. At least you can go online to watch some of TDS.

[goclark]

4. I can not stand Time Worst!

They are the absolutel pits.
I am happily away from them.
They controlled Los Angeles with an iron fist and finally they are not as powerful.