Breaking: Fox Network Set to Pull Sugar Bowl Telecast Off of Cable Systems in Major Markets

As the Fox Network and Time Warner Cable continue to negotiate through New Year's Day, there is considerable uncertainty over whether millions of college football fans will be able to watch tonight's Sugar Bowl between the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Florida Gators.

Fox is asking for a $1.00 per subscriber fee from Time Warner cable to continue making its major channels available. For its part, Time Warner Cable has refused, maintaining that the dollar amount is too high. Originally, Fox had set January 1, 2010 as the deadline before it would pull fourteen stations that it owns from Time Warner cable systems in major markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Orlando.

As Fox will cover the Sugar Bowl game tonight, it likely believes that it has the upper hand in terms of negotiations as New Year's Day bowl games are among the highest rated sporting events of the year. The Sugar Bowl is one of the original and most important bowls, as even during the era of the BCS system and bowls too many to count, in terms of tradition and popularity it remains one of the major bowls, alongside the Orange, Rose and Cotton.

This year's Sugar Bowl has added intrigue. This is the final collegiate game of Florida Quarterback (and former Heisman trophy winner) Tim Tebow's career. it also has the Cincinnati Bearcats without their head coach, Brian Kelly, who left the team, much to the dismay of many of his players, in December to accept the head coach position with Notre Dame. And finally, it is a partial going away party for Florida Coach Urban Meyer as he takes a leave of absence for medical reasons.

All of this adds up to a Sugar Bowl that should expect a huge national audience.

While the original deadline between Fox and Time Warner Cable was set for midnight on New Year's Eve, throughout the day both parties have agreed to a series of extensions in their negotiations, providing hope to millions of fans who plan their New Year's Day around big time college bowl games. As of 5:30 eastern time, however, no agreement has been reached and the current extension will expire at 6:00PM tonight.

While it may seem inconceivable that either Fox or Time Warner would be willing to accept the public relations fiasco that would surely follow if they cannot reach agreement and the game is not shown, nothing that happens in the business of televised sports should surprise. An entire season has been cancelled before in the NHL, a World Series has been cancelled in Major League Baseball, and even the National Football League has played a significant portion of its season with replacement players.

While all of those scenarios were due to labor disagreements, fans of big time sports may continue to be disappointed in the future, but probably never truly shocked.
Source: Kevin Coy, Yet Another Deadline Extension in Talks Between Time Warner Cable and Fox, newsonnews.net