A dispute over transmission fees between Time Warner and Disney led the cable giant today to pull the plug on seven Disney-owned ABC stations around the country. Instead of regular programming, about 3.5 million homes were treated to a full-screen message that “Disney has taken ABC away from you”…and during sweeps week, no less. – CNN 05/01/00
- FOOD FIGHT: No deal, no stations, as of midnight Sunday. – Washington Post 05/02/00
- CLASH OF THE TITANS: ”It’s one behemoth clashing with another for positioning.” – Boston Globe 05/02/00
- ONLY THE BEGINNING: Our viewing choices are shrinking because of media mergers. – Orange County Register 05/02/00
- MONOLITHIC MANEUVERS: How does the high-stakes tug-of-war between the multimedia monoliths bode for the future of broadband Web-based news and information? Will Time Warner’s pending merger with AOL “create an impenetrable barrier to non-AOL Time Warner companies interested in participating in looming interactive TV technology”? – Time 05/01/00
- BULLY TACTICS? “It’s unique in the history of cable,” said ABC spokeswoman Julie Hoover of the Time Warner dispute. “I can only liken this to the behavior of a schoolyard bully. They will beat up the kid in the schoolyard and they don’t care if the teacher sees it. They don’t care that the other kids don’t like it, they just do it because they can.” – Salon 05/02/00