Time Warner Cable Drops Current TV Upon Sale To Al Jazeera

[kpete]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Rhiannon12866 (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Huffington Post




Time Warner Cable Drops Current TV Upon Sale To Al Jazeera

...............

Joel Hyatt, who co-founded Current TV with former Vice President Al Gore, told staff in a Wednesday night memo that Time Warner Cable "did not consent to the sale to Al Jazeera."

"Consequently, Current will no longer be carried on TWC," Hyatt wrote. "This is unfortunate, but I am confident that Al Jazeera America will earn significant additional carriage in the months and years ahead."

A Time Warner Cable spokesman said in a statement that "our agreement with Current will be terminated and we will no longer be carrying the channel."

Some media observers interpreted the move as motivated by politics.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02/time-warner-al-jazeera-current-tv_n_2399370.html

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Al Jazeera Buys Current TV
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02/al-jazeera-current-tv_n_2398294.html?utm_hp_ref=media

[jwirr]

1. So much for looking at different viewpoints. All part of the dumbing down of America. I hope my

sources do not drop them.

[melody]

2. Yet more reason for me to drop TWC and go to a Roku type system n/t

[liberalmike27]

5. Wake up with Stephanie

Yesterday I woke up to find the 1090 station I was streaming Stephanie on, had changed to a sports format. So I found another from Chicago. Now this morning first thing, I get hit with this news. I usually record Steph at another location on Current TV and watch it later. It's on Comcast. So the new year, looking kind of crappy so far--clearly others have bigger problems.

As far as them changing to Al Jazeera, hey, after seeing the corporate millionaires fudge-fests on the weekend, with This Week, and the other millionaire boys' clubs' discussions, I'm sure Al Jazeera is going to be more accurate anyway.

I hope they don't drop all of the hosts. I think Stephanie has put on great morning ratings.

Anyway, like you said, I just bought a ROKU, and have been thinking of downsizing the tier to Digital Starter, which would have lost Current TV. It just makes my decision more easily made, since that was the only sticking point.

I had a subscription to Netflix, I use VUDU, and I just got another one from Hulu--it has some interesting original content, a lot of British and oriental television I've found interesting. It's more intelligent humor, even on the sitcoms.

So a big FU to American media outlets. I'll find it on the radio, I'll find it on the Internet if I have to.

[NICO9000]

16. Roku is the way to go

They offer a lot of content and you can't beat the $8 a month Netflix charge. We bought one two years ago and just love it. Check this link for cool private channels:

http://streamfree.tv/apps/roku-private-channels/all/

Enjoy!

[Hestia]

32. how do you get these channels on roku? we have one but have only found the

public channels.

[NorthCarolina]

3. Is it possible to receive Current TV on a Streaming Media Player

such as Roku or Sony?

Current TV was gone from TWC here in Charlotte as of this morning. I went to the Current TV website to see if they had anything detailing how to receive the channel on streaming media, but didn't really find what I was looking for. If anyone knows, I would sure appreciate the info.

[Botany]

4. this help?

http://myrtv.eu/current-tv/

although current will be gone PDQ

shit I lost my local progressive radio station and now I will not be able to watch current either

[liberalmike27]

6. I don't know About the Rest

But Stephanie is still going to be streaming on the Internet. If you've got an old computer you are trying to figure out what to do with, use it as an Internet Radio. I've got Stephanie Miller (morning, 8-11, Current TV) playing in the living room now.

I did wake up to find a sports station on the Internet site from which I usually stream. Go here

http://www.stephaniemiller.com/

And click on Listen Live, find a new station in the time range you listen, and use that old computer. Cenk too, has TYT on the Internet. I hope they consider keeping these nighttime hosts on, but I suspect some will lose out. I'm pretty sure Steph and Cenk were their big sellers.

[NorthCarolina]

13. I can receive it on my computer

but, although I can connect to the address on my SMP, it won't play the content

[liberalmike27]

10. Plus This

https://www.stephaniemiller.com/

You can stream it from here, but this is just radio.

If you've got an old computer around, you can re-purpose it to an Internet radio. From the trend so far in the new year, it seems the media is trying to reduce the few liberal offerings it has, though I'm sure Al Jazeera will be more honest, open, and accurate than our millionaire's club meetings on Sunday, or the extreme-right, fake-left corporate paradigms.

[tavalon]

12. I think it was during Arab Spring that I started watching Al Jazeera

Really high quality and much more intelligent than anything in the US. They have become my first international news resource.

I think those who have TWC should make their displeasure known and those of you who are going to alternatives like Roku should make sure they TWC knows why they are losing a customer.

[NorthCarolina]

14. I contacted TWC this morning and expressed my displeasure.

We don't have a Roku player, but we do have a Sony N200 streaming media player which is essentially the same thing. Hoping to find a way to stream Current TV to it...no luck as yet though.

[Uncle Joe]

7. No doubt that it was motivated by politics.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[kpete]

18. Uncle Joe

Happy New Year
and peace, (always)
kp

[Great Caesars Ghost]

23. Absolutely because we are at war.

[blackspade]

24. at war with ourselves....

[DonRedwood]

8. If Rupert Murdoch can own a news channel anyone should be able to

He makes it a very low bar.

[ChazII]

9. Almost makes me wish

I had cable. I bet the rethugs are wetting their pants.

[tavalon]

11. What's the problem?

Al Jazeera is a very good news organization. It seems like a good match.

I know I'm playing obtuse here, but if we look past the prejudice, they are one of the better news sources. I have no problem with the sale and I think TWC as an organization has shown it's bigotry. If I still had cable, I would be looking for another cable provider.

[blackspade]

15. How is it that TWC gets to 'not consent' to a sale?

The only reason for this is jingoistic bigotry.
Nothing more.

[onenote]

17. Standard contract language

If you're going to enter to a contract to carry a network for a term of years, you protect yourself by including language that says that if the network changes ownership, you can drop the network if you want. In addition, contracts also typically give a distributor the right to drop if the network rebrands itself or otherwise changes its content signficantly, which is what Al Jazeera has indicated it plans to do.

[blackspade]

25. And how often is this clause exercised and for what reasons?

The contract language is the excuse not the cause.
This is a political decision made by corporate bosses against a potential threat to their 'liberal media' message.

[onenote]

27. How often do networks change ownership? Not that often.

But my guess is that the decision to drop Current is more opportunistic than political in nature. Time Warner Cable announced a couple of months ago that it was going to start dropping what it deemed "underperforming" networks (and like it or not, Current is not a money maker). The first network to get the axe was Ovation, an arts network -- not a political decision, but a financial one. Current was mentioned often as another network that Time Warner Cable would drop if it got the chance. The decision to sell the network opened the door for Time Warner Cable to do what it was going to do anyway when it got the chance.

It seems like DUers fall into one of several camps about this.
Some are upset that Current has been dropped.
Some are upset that Al Jazeera isn't going to be added.
Some are upset that Current was going to be dismantled by Al Jazeera and replaced with another network.

My take is that no matter what, Current was going to disappear off of Time Warner Cable systems at some point and that point has now come. Current was going away whether it was dropped by Time Warner Cable or whether it was changed into some other network by Al Jazeera. As for the decision not to carry Al Jazeera, there are a couple of possiibilities: one is that TWC doesn't want to carry it for political reasons. Just as likely, they don't want to carry it because they think they can make more money using the channel capacity formerly occupied by Current for something else. A third and not far fetched possibility: Time Warner Cable may be setting itself up to negotiate more favorable terms for carrying Al Jazeera in the future than it thought it could get if it continued to carry Current through its transformation into whatever its going to become.

[blackspade]

30. I follow your reasoning.

That makes sense.
But I still consider the decision to have a political element to it.
I guess we'll see.


Unfortunately, I fall into all three of your camps!

[shadowwinds]

19. Time Warner Cable isn't alone!!!

This morning I tried to watch Bill Press Show and the screen was black. I called Bright House Cable here in Tampa and they told me that they had to take it off the air immediately according to the "sale agreement". I said that didn't make any sense because usually there is at least a warning trailer before a network goes off. All they said they was that they would pass my comments on. I'm assuming they'll go into the trash bin.

[onenote]

20. Bright House and Time Warner Cable carried Current under the same contract

Time Warner Cable has a management agreement with Bright House under which Bright House's carraige of most networks is pursuant to contracts negotiated by Time Warner Cable. The combination gives Time Warner Cable more volume and typically results in a lower price for programming than Bright House could negotiate on its own.

[PADemD]

21. Current is still on DirecTV

[Great Caesars Ghost]

22. And don't forget to support companys and products that advertise on the channel.

I see a boycott commin

[patrice]

26. I bet I can get it on my Roku. nt

[william cail]

28. BeIn Sport

It seems odd that they have no interest in carrying Al Jazerra news. They do carry BeIn Sport network witch is owned by Al Jazzera.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeIN_Sport

[colsohlibgal]

29. AT & T Still Had It On This Morning

Al Jazeera is good, TWC's reaction is pure conservative knee jerk. Now I would not be shocked if AT & T did the same, but I just checked and it's still there.

I just hope some of the talk shows survive on Al Jazeera but I'm not terriblly optimistic about that.

[Sunlei]

31. It will probably be on free tv or internet. Here's a link- it's much more complete world news.

Heck of a lot better than fox-lies or most cable pay for news.

http://www.aljazeera.com/

[Rhiannon12866]

33. Locking, sorry, this is a duplicate. Please continue discussion and post updates here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=354679