• The New York Times, Monday, July 31, 2006 12:32 PM

In the four years since Comcast became the nation's largest cable provider by a factor of two, reports The New York Times, it has boasted that its size gets it more favorable rates from programmers. Well, with the Adelphia breakup set to close, Time Warner Cable may be able to make a similar claim. The company is in line to add 3.5 million new cable customers--a 29 percent increase. It will also become the dominant provider in the nation's two largest cities: New York and Los Angeles. "Since key decision makers in the advertising and media worlds are concentrated in these cities, Time Warner Cable will become even more of a destination for programmers," the Times notes. "You will reach the mind-share folks" if your network is carried on Time Warner Cable, says Lowell Singer, an analyst at Cowen & Company. "If you're a programmer, you have to be on there."

Read the whole story at The New York Times »