carriage deals

The Weather Channel agrees to cut its reality programming by 50% and apologizes “for the disruption of our service and for initiating a public campaign.”

DirecTV may be angling to drop The Weather Channel from its lineup, prompting The Weather Channel to launch a PR campaign to try and stop it. The carriage deal between the two parties expires Jan. 14. At risk for The Weather Channel is distribution to DirecTV’s 20 million subscribers.

Some heavy storms may be headed toward the Weather Channel. DirecTV, the satellite broadcaster with more than 20 million subscribers around the country, has quietly started distributing a network called WeatherNation just as its deal to carry the Weather Channel is set to expire.

A month before launching its much publicized all-sports network, Fox has yet to cut carriage deals with three of the country’s four biggest distributors, raising the possibility that its August launch of Fox Sports 1 will fall short of the 90 million homes the channel is expected to have. DirecTV, Dish Network and Time Warner Cable — representing more than 46 million subscribers — still are negotiating to carry FS1 on Aug. 17, which is when Fox will turn its motorsports channel, Speed, into a multisport network.

The multi-year agreement includes carriage of Univision’s broadcast stations, as well as the network feeds for Univision and UniMás, and the Spanish-language cable network, Galavisión.

It isn’t a la carte but Verizon’s proposal to tie what it pays to carry TV channels to the number of viewers who actually watch is what big media companies might consider “disruptive.”

Entertainment Studios Inc. signed a new multi-year affiliation agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) that includes distribution for the Entertainment Studios cable television networks by NCTC members who […]

Time Warner Cable boss Glenn Britt’s message to low-rated cable networks is simple: You’ll get nothing, and like it. Britt — who is looking to rein in soaring programming costs by culling channels with smaller audiences — has started telling some programmers that they can either go dark or get no fee at all in return for continued distribution on his service.

The companies announced that they have a pact to keep the channels on the phone giant’s video system past the end of December, when the current contract expires. While the companies didn’t disclose specific terms, AMC says that it’s a “long-term agreement” that “recognizes the value of our networks.”

DirecTV, whose CEO suggested the asking price was indicative of out-of-control carriage fees, has inked a deal to carry the Los Angeles Lakers-focused regional sports network, Time Warner Cable SportsNet. The deal also includes a Spanish-language version.

Time Warner Cable is asking as much as $3.95 per subscriber per month from competitors in the L.A. area, said a person familiar with the situation. The person requested anonymity because the negotiations are confidential and the details were not yet final. That would make it the second most expensive regional sports network in the nation behind Comcast SportsNet Washington, which charges $4.02 per subscriber per month, according to research firm SNL Kagan.

Dish Network and Sinclair Broadcast Group reached a last-minute agreement Thursday to keep Sinclair stations from going dark for Dish subscribers.

After weeks of quiet but intense negotiations, Time Warner Cable and Fox News have struck a new long-term affiliation agreement. The talks between the two giants remained mostly under the radar and terms weren’t disclosed but sources say Fox will get a $1 per sub increase in the first year, and increases in the following years.

AMC Networks, the company behind cable networks AMC, IFC, and WE tv, AT&T’s U-verse pay TV service, unveiled a new carriage agreement on Sunday.