CBS Blackout on Time Warner Cable

By Chris Ariens 

The blackout of CBS Corp. local stations and cable networks is now in its 17th hour.

At 5pmET yesterday CBS O&Os in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Denver and Pittsburgh were pulled from Time Warner Cable systems in those markets. Additionally, cable channels Showtime, The Movie Channel, Flix and Smithsonian Channel are blacked out on Time Warner Cable. Viewers of 75 separate TV stations in 52 markets are seeing this message when they tune in those channels. TWC is also encouraging viewers to use the Aereo service — which is being sued by CBS Corp. and other broadcasters — to obtain CBS’s local stations.

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The American Television Alliance says the cable blackouts are “higher than ever before.”

CBS is warning that the blackouts mean viewers “will be deprived of a variety of CBS Sports live golf coverage… including coverage of the World Golf Championships: Bridgestone Invitational, with Tiger Woods leading heading into third-round coverage.”

Time Warner Cable briefly pulled CBS from their systems early Wednesday morning after a previous deadline had passed. Negotiations continued with a 5pm Friday deadline set, at which point TWC pulled the stations, indefinitely.

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