Sen. Kerry Praises Fox Extension

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) praised Fox for not pulling its TV station signals from Time Warner Cable systems at midnight, Dec. 31, as it had a contractural right to do.

Kerry had asked the companies to agree to an extension, or to independent arbitration or strike a deal. While the extension is of no set duration--the two remain in negotiations--it does prevent Time Warner Cable subs from losing cable access to New Year's Day college bowl games, a driving force behind Kerry's avowed interest in not having those customers cut off from TV station signals.

"I am pleased that FOX has not pulled its programming and that the parties remain at the table," said Kerry in a statement Jan. 1. "I encourage a long term, mutually agreeable solution that does not strip consumers of programming unnecessarily and believe that good faith negotiations should result in an agreement."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.