• by Wayne Friedman , January 6, 2009

Unlike the combative position of its corporate sibling, CBS Corp. made a more quiet deal with Time Warner Cable for the carriage of its programming.

CBS Corp. today announced a five-year agreement that will include CBS as well as the carriage of Showtime Networks, through 2013 on Time Warner cable systems. TWC has an estimated 13 million cable subscribers, the second-largest multiple system operator in the country.

The deal will also include participation in Time Warner Cable's Start Over and Look Back video services, where viewers can watch shows with some DVR capabilities. For example, it allows viewers to watch programs from the beginning after they have begun to air.

"We are extremely pleased to have reached this agreement which recognizes the value of our programming to Time Warner Cable and its subscribers," said Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp. president-CEO. "The CBS Television Network and Showtime are an essential component of any meaningful programming lineup."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

On New Year's Day, after a brief public argument concerning cable subscriber fees, Time Warner Cable reached a new carriage agreement with Viacom. Both Viacom and CBS are controlled by Sumner Redstone.

In early December, at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, Moonves reiterated: "We expect, over the next two to three years, to have north of $200 million dropping rights to the bottom line from retrans."

He then added: "We have yet to pull our signal off of any MSO, any cable system. I hope it doesn't come to that. I don't think it will; I think we'll resolve our differences. This is not a good time in the economy to do that, between the MSOs and the program suppliers, which we are."