The News Corporation said Wednesday that it looked unlikely that it would sign a new distribution contract with Time Warner Cable by Thursday night, increasing the likelihood that its Fox stations will be removed from cable lineups in millions of homes.
News Corporation’s president, Chase Carey, declined an offer made by Time Warner Cable
earlier in the day to enter binding arbitration.
“At this time, it looks like we will not reach an agreement and our channels may very well go off the air in Time Warner Cable systems,” Mr. Carey told Fox employees in an e-mail message. “We deeply regret that millions of Fox customers will be deprived of our programming, but we need to receive fair compensation from Time Warner Cable to go forward with them.”
The two companies are fighting over the amount that the cable operator should pay Fox stations for the right to retransmit their popular shows, sporting events and local newscasts. Fox is demanding about a dollar per cable subscriber per month; Time Warner Cable calls that amount “excessive.”
