LOS ANGELES, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission Thursday urged News Corp. and Time Warner Inc. not to let a contract expiration disrupt programming.
The two media companies are working against a midnight deadline to reach agreement on a new contract for Time Warner Cable to carry Fox television shows. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday he has urged the two companies "to agree to a temporary extension of carriage if they do not come to terms on a new carriage agreement today," the Los Angeles Times reported.
News Corp. President Chase Carey issued a memo Wednesday saying "at this time, it looks like we will not reach an agreement and our channels may very well go off the air."
The major obstacle is money, with Time Warner offering to pay Fox about 30 cents per subscriber and Fox asking for about $1, the Times said. Fox has declined offers to have the contract extended or have the issues resolved in arbitration.
Carey's memo said "we strongly believe this is an issue that needs to be settled at the bargaining table and that binding arbitration all too often looks to the past, not the future."
If no agreement is reached, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Tampa, Fla., would lose their Fox channels, including Fox Sports West, FX and Prime Ticket. The network's news programming on Fox News Channel is not affected as it is covered by another contract.
U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communication, Technology and the Internet, said Wednesday he would ask the FCC to "mandate continued carriage" if Fox pulled its programming from Time Warner Cable.
