By HUNTER BISHOP
By HUNTER BISHOP
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Fans of TV’s Jimmy Kimmel were surely disappointed Monday night — at least those watching the show on Oceanic Time Warner Cable.
Halfway through the late-night talk show, the cable company stopped carrying Hearst Corp.-owned KITV, which airs the Kimmel program, after Time Warner balked at the price Hearst Television Inc. wants to charge to retransmit the programming on cable.
Hearst Television’s KITV also airs shows such as “The Bachelorette,” “Revenge,” and the afternoon soap opera “General Hospital.”
Talks went on for more than a week beyond the July 1 expiration of the original contract between Hearst and Time
Warner. The cable company announced Monday that it terminated negotiations with Hearst Television for the continued carriage of KITV and pulled the plug on Hearst Corp. at 11:59 p.m. Monday.
Hearst is reportedly asking for an increase of more than 300 percent from cable companies, also known as multi-system operators or MSOs, across the nation for its television stations.
KITV General Manager Andrew Jackson said the station regrets “the inconvenience that Time Warner Cable has imposed on its customers.” He said Hearst has concluded new carriage agreements with numerous other cable companies in recent months with no disruption of service to subscribers.
He also said the proposed rates are “right in line” with what other other cable companies across the nation are paying. And though he said the increase is not as high as 300 percent, he was unaware of exactly how much more Hearst was asking.
Honolulu is one of 13 markets nationwide now without the Hearst stations among its cable channel selections.
Jackson said Tuesday that there’s “no way of knowing” when the standoff would end. KITV issued a statement on Monday saying that Time Warner “refuses to pay our station a reasonable fee relative to what it pays for other significantly less popular channels. As a result, … carriage of KITV will no longer be available … on Time Warner systems.”
Time Warner Cable blamed Hearst for the “blackout” in a statement released Monday. The cable company said “Hearst Television has chosen to black out their signals from our customers rather than continue negotiations.”
Time Warner Cable has reached hundreds of agreements with other broadcasters without broadcaster blackouts, but Hearst’s demand for a nearly 300 percent increase is way out of line.
“Despite Hearst’s blackout,” the Time Warner release said, “we stand ready to continue negotiations and are hopeful that their stations will be returned to our lineups shortly,”
Hearst denied that it “blacked out” KITV. The company said its stations may still be received for free, over the air, or by satellite from DIRECTV or DISH and, where available, from other cable operators.”
But at least for the time being, not on Oceanic Time Warner Cable.
Email Hunter Bishop at hbishop@hawaiitribune-herald.com.