RELATED: Cable One Blasts Turner Nets
The American Cable Association Thursday (Oct. 3) slammed Turner Broadcasting over pulling its programming from Cable One on the eve of the Major League Baseball playoffs, calling deeply disturbing.
"Turner’s move is yet another brazen example of how a media conglomerate uses the withholding of marquee sports programming from consumers as punishment when a cable operator refuses to force its subscribers to pay for expensive, unpopular and low-rated programming that Turner seeks to bundle with TBS," said Matthew Polka, ACA president.
“Cable ONE, unable to avoid Turner’s current industrywide campaign to extract hyper-inflationary price increases and excessive channel-bundling demands in its contract renegotiations, then sought to carry just three select Turner channels (TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network) that have been most popular with its customers. But in a vindictive spasm of power, Turner blocked Cable ONE’s right to carry only TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network pursuant to an open agreement Turner makes available to other small cable operators."
Cable One’s existing agreement to carry the Turner networks expired on Oct. 1, with the parties unable to reach a deal. Turner did not immediatley respond to comment at presstime.
