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CABLE TV AGREEMENT
Sinclair, Warner reach truce on high def
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Tim Feran
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A treaty has been reached in the protracted high-definition war between Time Warner Cable and Sinclair Broadcast Group.

The two companies yesterday signed an agreement allowing Time Warner to carry HD broadcasts from 35 Sinclair stations, including WSYX-TV (Channel 6) and WTTE-TV (Channel 28).

The three-year pact — which goes into effect immediately and expires Dec. 31, 2009 — ends a series of sometimesbitter negotiations between the companies.

Judy Barbao, a spokeswoman for Time Warner in Columbus, wouldn’t reveal financial terms of the deal. In a statement, Sinclair President David Smith said only that the contract "represents a mutually acceptable economic agreement between the parties."

The news buoyed some Time Warner customers, who in recent years have been unable to view in the widescreen digital format two Super Bowls, many Ohio State football games and popular TV shows such as American Idol, Grey’s Anatomy and 24.

"Oh, my," said Jessica Servick of Gahanna. "We’ve been waiting for this for years."

Her husband, Joe, said the worst part of the stalemate was missing Buckeye games in high definition.

"That’s incredibly frustrating after forking over $2,500 on a new TV," he said.

The news also elated Larry Niswonger of Dublin.

"That just makes my day," Niswonger said. "The whole thing was just ridiculous."

Since 2003, Sinclair had insisted that Time Warner pay for the HD signals — free over the airwaves — while Time Warner had maintained that it shouldn’t have to pay for something otherwise free.

Other central Ohio stations provide their HD signals without charge to Time Warner.

The cable system, which carries Sinclair stations to more cable subscribers than any other cable company, serves the most customers in Ohio — 1.2 million.

"We are excited that this agreement not only ensures retransmission of our signals by Time Warner for the next three years," Smith said, "but also provides for the carriage of our digital signals for the first time to most of Time Warner’s subscribers."

Because of technical considerations, the transmission of the digital channels will be delayed for a couple of weeks to customers in the Newark and Chillicothe areas who previously subscribed to Adelphia cable.

tferan@dispatch.com

Link

It's about time!!! Now they just need to add the NFL Network.

Screw TW.. When we gonna get NFL Network?

NFL network is sweet, Football 24 hrs a day 365 days a year.

I love Direct TV.

As a Time Warner - Columbus customer, I say... It's about danged time!!!! I had both channels when I got home from work tonight.

LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG OVERDUE!!! About time Sinclair and TW got their heads out of their butts.

And I blame Sinclair more... WCMH (4-NBC), WBNS(10-CBS), WWHO (53-CW) all offered thier signals long ago, why would Sinclair think they are special?

And TW technically doesn't charge for any of these channels. If you subscribe to HD programming you get those channels and a couple of others included (you do have to rent the HD box though). There are another 1/2 dozen or so HD channels they package as HD Gold for about $6/month.

I HATE TIME WARNER. SOMEBODY TOLD ME TO SWITCH TO WOW CABLE ? NEVER HEARD OF IT THOUGH.