Dora and Boots No Longer Tearful

Millions of children and other viewers will wake up on New Year's Day and be able to watch their favorite programs on their Time Warner cable networks.

Time Warner (and Bright House) and Viacom were in a feud over pricing. Currently Time Warner pays Viacom about $300 million a year for its programming. Viacom demanded another $39 million, claiming that their content viewership had gone up to the point that they felt they were being underpaid for the programming they supplied. Some of Viacom's major networks carried on the cable giant include MTV, Nickelodeon, Noggin and Comedy Central.

So Time Warner, feeling they could not justify an increase in cost to their customers, decided to blackout these channels unless a more equitable deal could be worked out.

Viacom decided to take its case directly to the viewers. Not only did they make a public plea using a tearful Dora the Explorer and her pal Boots in print advertisements, and devoted a website with the same theme (which has changed since the deal was struck), but they also ran ticker ads at the bottom of the screen on their various channels. It told the viewers that as of 12:01 AM EST, this channel would no longer be available due to failed negotiations with the cable company.

A couple of three year old twin boys asked their grandfather what that thing was on the television, he told them it was a message. When pressed, he told his grandsons that it meant they would no longer be able to watch

Dora the Explorer or Go, Diego, Go! or Wonder Pets or Wow Wow Wubzzy. They were rather upset. The grandfather then placed a call to Time Warner about keeping the channels, as was suggested by the ticker.

"Look," he told the customer service representative, Ann. "I don't know if you have children, or if the executives from Time Warner realize what it would be like to have to tell your crying kids they can't watch their favorite shows. But trust me, it will not be a pretty picture. So if you can pass it up to your bosses, I'll pay the twenty five cents a month to keep the channels."

A statement released by Viacom in the evening on December 31st regarding renewal negotiations with Time Warner Cable read "Time Warner Cable's continued rhetoric and posturing is disappointing and unproductive. We have made it clear that we welcome a credible and meaningful discussion that respects our viewers and the value our programming brings to Time Warner Cable. We remain ready and willing to engage. It's time for serious talk - before the viewers become the victims."

The two companies continued talks into the late hours of 2008 and, minutes before midnight, had agreed on an hour extension of the 12:01 AM EST blackout. Shortly after making that announcement, Alex Dudley, a Time Warner Cable spokesperson, said that both sides had agreed on a new contract. No details of the new deal were available but were said to be forthcoming later in the day. Calls to both Time Warner and Viacom were not answered due to the obviously late night and the holiday, and no new information was available on their respective websites.

The channels in the dispute were Comedy Central, Logo, Palladia, MTV, MTV 2, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV Tr3s, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nick 2, Nicktoons, Spike, The N, TV Land, VH1, VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul and CMT: Pure Country.

Sources:

Viacom - News

http://www.viacom.com/news/Pages/newstext.aspx?RID=1240003

Time Warner Cable - News

http://www.timewarnercable.com/InvestorRelations/PressReleases/TWCPressReleaseList.ashx

Time Waner Cable and Viacom reach deal

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/viacom_time_warner_cable