Time Warner Cable and Walt Disney Co. agreed to keep ABC, ESPN and other channels on the air as the two companies continued negotiations past a midnight deadline.
The media companies are trying to reach a new contract and avoid blackouts for Time Warner Cable customers, but haven't come to terms on a new deal. Their existing contract expired at midnight.
"We continue to negotiate - there should be no programming interruption while the negotiations continue," Time Warner Cable spokesman Keith Poston wrote in an e-mail this morning. "Stay tuned."
Time Warner Cable has about 2.1 million customers in the Carolinas and is the Triangle's dominant pay-TV provider with 830,000 customers in the region from Raleigh to the coast.
As with similar disputes in the past, this fight is about money. Disney wants more for its programming, including its popular sports channels and websites. Time Warner Cable is resisting paying higher fees for every subscriber.
This region's ABC station, WTVD, is one of 10 across the country owned by Disney and is part of the negotiations.
An extended standoff could be costly for both companies and prompt some cable customers to defect to rival pay-TV services. In January, Time Warner Cable resolved a dispute with News Corp. at the last minute and avoided programming disruptions.
On Wednesday, AT&T dropped the Hallmark Channel from its U-Verse TV service after negotiations for a new distribution agreement stalled, Bloomberg News reported.
Assistant Business Editor Alan M. Wolf joined the N&O in 1999 covering the business of health care. He became an editor in 2001, and helps oversee the paper's daily business coverage and Sunday Work&Money section. He lives in Clayton with his wife and two children. Reach him at 919-829-4572 or 
Comments
The Two Worst Offenders
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 09:38 — bilgewaterMany people know its great when two horrible people manage to get married and help mankind by eliminating them from the dating pool.
The same thing can be said about these two companies.
Both earned billions of dollars,and shareholders were completely shut out.They never made any money,despite enormous revenue streams.They never paid less than top dollar for some of the worst management in the history of management outside Drexel Burnham.And,they own two cash cows out of thirty or forty different divisions or departments.Only GM and the railroads did less with the capital at hand.
Come on Disney, pull the plug on TWC...
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 06:12 — weeksgrooveLet's force them out of the area!
Everyone make the switch. TWC, worst service, worst customer service, worst infrastructure, worst programming, worst billing practices. There is nothing good about that company.
I have yet to meet a single person happy with their TWC.
And when you switch, make sure you tell them that you are going to switch sometime between 8am and 5PM.