Author: Glenn Hauman

Missed this one last Tuesday: while everybody else in the world was being good while awaiting the arrival of jolly old St. Nick, the folks on Wall Street were taking a different tack…

Lord Vader had no comment on rumors that he was stepping down as CEO of Microsoft to take on a new position at Goldman Sachs, possibly due to impending litigation from News Corporation which claims he is an employee of their subsidiary 20th Century Fox and is still contractually obligated to them.

Here’s a fun find– the Hockinson High School Drama Club presenting a live adaptation of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

What do you think?

You may have seen the ads on your local Fox station: the big meanies at Time Warner Cable might keep you from watching Fox networks. The problem is that the ads are filled with fibs and fertilizer.

The negotiations have nothing to do with the main Fox broadcast network, which actually airs all the shows mentioned in the ads (House, American Idol, The Simpsons, Family Guy and the NFL broadcasts). What’s being renegotiated are what Time Warner Cable is actually paying for Fox’s cable channels, such as FX, SPEED, FUEL TV, Fox
Movie Channel, Fox Reality Channel, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports en
Español, and FS Arizona, Florida, Houston, Indiana, Kansas City,
Midwest, Southwest, West, and Prime Ticket, SportSouth, and Sun Sports.

In fact, Time Warner Cable CAN’T lose the Fox broadcast channel, that channel has must-carry status– a status that Fox has lobbied very hard to get for Fox News, by the way.

Fox is attempting to raise the prices they’re charging cable companies to carry their networks and are bundling the networks together so you have to carry all of them or none of them, and they’re not telling you that’s what it’s about. I’m sure that if Fox kept their rates constant, TWC would have no problem paying the same rate– but Fox appears to be tripling the rate.

Ah, and I now see notes that indicate that if no deal is reached, Fox will pull all of their programming, broadcast and cable both. That should be fun when their licenses come up for renewal.

Observant folks will note that this is the same strategy Rupert Murdoch talks about when he says that he’s going to pull all of News Corporation content from Google unless they pay him. To which we say: go ahead.

It gives that Fox show Lie To Me an interesting double meaning, no?