WHO WANTS TO HAVE A CABLE BLACKOUT?
In New York, Houston and Los Angeles, the biggest markets affected by the blackout, ABC came back on the air shortly after the Time Warner announcement.
"We're gratified that Time Warner is now making the viewers their first priority," ABC said in a statement. "As we've been saying, we've been dismayed that they would place their own customers in the middle of a business negotiation. Now go buy our advertisers' products, you fat, worthless zombies. Oops...that was, um, a joke, or something."
The move is a temporary one, however. Time Warner is giving ABC and its parent, the Walt Disney Company, until July 15 to resolve their dispute.
Like most squabbles of this sort, the battle boils down to money. Disney wants Time Warner to feature its new channels--Toon Disney and a soap opera channel—and make the Disney Channel part of the basic service packages. Time Warner is cool with the plans but not the price tag. Time Warner says such a move would increase its costs by more than $300 million.
