Well, today is the day that WIVB and WNLO will vanish from the sets of Time Warner cable customers. Time Warner took over in this area after Adelphia went belly-up a while ago.
From what I can figure out, the dispute is over LIN television, the parent company of WIVB and WNLO, wanting to charge the cable operator to carry their signals.
According to LIN Television, they want “less than a penny a day per station/per subscriber, for that ability to resell our station’s programming.” The also talk about “fair market compensation” for a signal that they make available over-the-air for free to individuals.
LIN Television’s side of the story is here and Time Warner’s side is here.
Now, I watch these channels either over the air (for free) or using DirecTV, neither of which is affected by this. So I have no axe to grind in this issue.
But I have an opinion. (Of course!) Continue Reading…