Analysts who had observed the long standoff between CBS Corp and Time Warner Cable over ownership fees said that CBS would be the obvious winner should the deal be settled. Moffet Research analyst for cable and telecommunications Craig Moffett said, "CBS is the winner. Content owners always win these negotiations, it's just a matter of how much they won."
CBS and Time Warner had been arguing since August 2. When disagreement boiled over, 3.2 million cable subscribers were largely affected with a massive blackout on CBS, Showtime and other channels owned by CBS.
The deal contested hotly by both media corporations centered on two issues. CBS asked for as much as USD2 per month "retransmission fees" for Time Warner to carry CBS and other channels per cable subscriber. The fee initially agreed by the two companies in 2008 was USD0.56 per subscriber, although any fee increase would be spread over the life of the contract. The other issue was that of CBS wanting additional costs for its digital rights, as the company has been receiving payment for digital use of its programs from cable operators. Time Warner was insistent in upholding a provision in its earlier contract that the company would continue to receive CBS programming over its internet outlets without additional costs.
New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, and other cities were affected with the blackout. CBS and Time recently came to an agreement, as programming on all networks resumed on Monday at 6PM EDT.
Time Warner's Cable Chairman and Chief Executive, Glenn Britt, said in a separate statement, "While we certainly didn't get everything we wanted, ultimately we ended up in a much better place than when we started."
However, both CBS and Time Warner did not disclose the final terms of its contract nor provided any other comment.
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