CINCINNATI -- You’ve seen the crawl if you've watched Reds broadcast lately. Basically it says as a Spectrum subscriber you could be losing Fox Sports Ohio and thus, Reds coverage.
What it comes down to is Reds fans could become collateral damage in the corporate dispute between Charter Communications and Fox.
Variety reports “the dispute arises from Charter’s acquisition last year of Time Warner Cable. Beginning in May, when the acquisition was finalized, Charter began paying affiliate fees according to Time Warner Cable carriage contracts, which generally assigned a more favorable rate for the distributor. That move is the subject of lawsuits involving networks including Univision, Showtime and Fox News, whose parent companies claim that the Charter contracts should remain in effect. Fox Networks’ deal with Time Warner expired March 31. The two companies have been in sporadic negotiations on a compromise deal for the last eight months.”
Fox has launched website in the battle, savemynets.com. Both sides have issued statements.
From Fox: “Fox and Charter Spectrum have an agreement to carry the Fox networks that Charter has chosen to ignore. We are disappointed that despite our best efforts over many months to resolve the situation without disruption, Charter’s 16 million subscribers may lose access to a wide variety of programming, including telecasts of the St. Louis Cardinals and Blues, Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cincinnati Reds and many other MLB, NBA and NHL teams on Fox Regional Sports Networks, FX’s hit dramas ‘The Americans’ and ‘Feud,’ and National Geographic.”
Charter is pointing the finger right back at Fox.
“Fox is trying to gouge our customers using the increasingly common tactic of threats and removal of programming,” a Charter spokesperson said in a statement. “They are attempting to extort Charter for hundreds of millions of dollars. We will continue to work towards a fair agreement. ”
These things often get resolved, but a dispute with Charter and the Los Angeles Dodgers has kept Dodgers games off the air for most of the L.A. area for years.
