Lexington, KY – After a month where a stationary page of text replaced programming on CBS owned channels, Time Warner Cable has reached a deal that brings Showtime, TMC, Flix, CBS Sports Network and the Smithsonian channel back to Lexington area customers.
“We’re pleased to be able to restore CBS programming for our customers, and appreciate their patience and loyalty throughout the dispute. As in all of our negotiations, we wanted to hold down costs and retain our ability to deliver a great video experience for our customers,” said Glenn Britt, Time Warner Cable’s chairman and CEO.
By 6 p.m. Monday, programming had been restored to Lexington area residents. Those with Time Warner Cable in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Denver and Pittsburgh were also without their local CBS affiliated TV stations as the television network owns those local properties.
Had the blackout continued through the week, those cities would not have been able to see NFL games broadcast by CBS, and each city, except for Los Angeles, is home to an NFL team.
The two New York-based companies ratcheted-up rhetoric during the retransmission dispute, which has become increasingly common in the cable television business.
In late 2011 Insight Communications – which was then being purchased by Time Warner Cable – struck a last minute deal to keep Sinclair Broadcasting’s WDKY, Fox56 on their system in Lexington. Earlier that year, Time Warner had blacked out Sinclair owned stations as a result of a similar dispute over re-airing rights.
Details of the agreement between CBS and Time Warner Cable have not been released, but a statement from CBS states Time Warner Cable customers in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas will have access to the Showtime Anytime app, similar to HBOGO which allows customers to stream content to their computers and mobile devices. Regional Time Warner Cable spokesman Mike Hogan said that option is not available for the Lexington market.