NBC has thwarted Time Warner Cable's plans to swap Bravo's spot on its New York City system with CNBC's channel Thursday because the change would have exiled CNBC into the system's wasteland.
Time Warner had planned to move Bravo up from channel 64 to 15 - the spot
currently occupied by CNBC - but Time Warner spokeswoman Harriet Novet says NBC
and Bravo worked out an agreement to keep the channels in their current spot.
NBC owns 26% of Bravo's parent company Rainbow Media.
The cable operator agreed to the leave the channels in their current
spots.
Time Warner is sticking with plans to shakeup other channels effective Sept.
5th.
The changes give The National Network: TNN and Court TV (which is partly
owned by AOL Time Warner) better placement (lower channel number), while
demoting USA Network to higher channels.
TNN has been aggressively lobbying Time Warner for a lower number.
'They've noted that some channels have changed and deserve a better shot,'
said a TNN spokesperson, pointing to the Viacom net's Nielsen growth and strong
World Wrestling Federation ratings.
TNN will be bumped from channel 72 up to 36 and Court TV moves 40 to 23,
while USA slips from channel 23 to 40.
Other changes include:
- The Weather Channel, from channel 36 to 72
- QVC from channel 69 to 33
- Cinemax from channel 33 to 69
