Despite a
CBS executive’s testimony, Time Warner Cable says it is not looking to restrict CBS’ ability to sell content to digital distributors in negotiations on a new carriage deal.
“We categorically deny that we are trying to keep CBS from doing business with any new entrant,” the cable operator stated. “Both our expired and proposed agreements with CBS place
no restriction on their ability to sell all of their product to Netflix, Amazon, Intel or any other entity, or continue to give all of their best content away for free online, as they have to
date.”
The statement was in response to written testimony from CBS Executive Vice President Martin Franks to a New York City Council subcommittee, where he suggested Time Warner Cable
might be maneuvering to “hamstring our ability to do business with Netflix, Amazon, Hulu Plus and other new entrants that pose a new competitive threat to their former cozy, unchallenged
monopoly statues.”
Franks said CBS is offering “terms and conditions” that are “virtually identical to what every program distributor has signed up for -- without
public dispute -- in the past few years.”
“Those other providers did not insist upon the anti-competitive edge that Time Warner is demanding” regarding Netflix and
brethren, he said.
The CBS-owned WCBS in New York has been blacked out since Monday in Time Warner Cable homes, as have other stations in other markets.
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