Time Warner Cable is offering free antennas to any subscribers who want to watch CBS programming over the air, as the blackout between the two companies hits the three-week mark. In an email to customers on Friday, TWC said that it is “making basic indoor antennas available at no cost.”
“We regret that CBS has put our customers in this position by continuing to withhold its channels,” read the missive from Time Warner Cable. “We are trying to strike a balance between our desire to restore the channels as soon as possible and our responsibility to all of our customers to hold down the rising cost of TV.”
The Time Warner Cable email also said, “If we agreed to every outrageous demand made by every television network, cable TV bills would skyrocket.”
The dispute centers on how much the cable operator should pay to carry CBS programming in places where CBS owns local affiliates, including New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit and Pittsburgh.
At first glance, giving away antennas seems like a nice thing for TWC to do for its subscribers. However, this could also end up showing people that they don’t really need cable any longer, especially at over $100 a month…
If I were a cable operator I would not pay any TV station for carrying its signal, and I hate Time Warner. I would charge CBS for the cable spectrum that their station takes on the system if they try to charge for something that should have no charge.
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