• Bloomberg, Sunday, August 29, 2010 11:22 PM

Time Warner Cable Inc.'s negotiations to renew rights to ESPN may be held up on a demand by the sports channel's owner, Walt Disney Co., to be paid for a related site. Disney is seeking a fee of about 10 cents a month per Web customer for ESPN3.com. ESPN, the most-profitable unit of Burbank, California-based Disney, has honed a strategy of buying sports broadcast rights and charging cable systems industry-leading fees for games. An agreement with Time Warner Cable would add more than 9 million paying customers to the Web site, reports B&C.

 

The cable operator has previously said it doesn't agree with ESPN3.com's business model, which requires payment based on the total number of Internet subscribers. Although Time Warner Cable has said it acknowledges the site's appeal, its Internet customers shouldn't have to pay for programming they may never watch.

Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Cable Inc. said Sunday that they have made "significant progress" in resolving their issues over programming fees with less than a week left to renew a pact that feeds TV channels like ESPN into American households, notes AP. Both companies have agreed to pull marketing campaigns aimed at persuading public opinion to their side, The Wall Street Journal reported online Sunday. They now expect to reach a deal without "blacking out any TV networks," the paper said, citing unnamed people who were familiar with the talks.

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