Time Warner Cable May Take Away Your Fox Channels on New Year’s Eve

By Amanda Pendolino on December 30th, 2009

If you have Time Warner Cable and you’re hoping to watch Billboard’s New Year’s Eve Live hosted by Carmen Electra, you may be out of luck. According to The Los Angeles Times, Time Warner Cable subscribers may lose all their Fox channels this New Year’s Eve because of a brawl between News Corp (which owns Fox) and Time Warner Cable.

Here’s the problem: News Corp. is demanding that Time Warner Cable pay for transmitting its Fox stations — including local Fox affiliates and cable networks such as FX, Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket. The current deal between Fox and Time Warner Cable, the nation’s second-biggest cable operator, expires at midnight Thursday. (It gives a whole new meaning to that ball drop.)

If the contract is not renewed, viewers will have to hurry and find an alternative TV service or risk missing the network’s coverage of important college football games, including the Sugar, Fiesta and Orange bowls. If the feud continues, it will also affect shows like American Idol, 24 and House.

When the two giants do come to an agreement, it’s probably still going to be bad news for us poor TV watchers. Any deal between Time Warner and Fox will set a new benchmark for content producers to charge cable operators to carry their networks - and guess how cable operators will pay for it? By hiking up our bills.