Retransmission battles heat up in the new year

The most significant skirmish is between Time Warner Cable and Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns roughly 60 TV stations across the country, including 20 Fox affiliates. Time Warner Cable currently serves 8.5 million consumers. Talks have broken down over Sinclair’s offer of an additional 10 cents per subscriber; Time Warner argues actual costs are more than 25 cents per subscriber.

Members of the cable industry have pushed for the government to step in to protect consumers from blackouts as a result of failed retransmission negotiations. But programmers argue control of their content is the only significant bargaining chip they have against cable and satellite providers who must keep customers satisfied.