[UPDATE 12:48PM] An update to the statement juuuust got sent over to me. See the fix in bold along with the original bullet point struck out below.
Here's the statement I received in the email from Ann Kelsey, Manager of Media Relations at Time Warner Cable:
April 24, 2012 San Diego, CA - Time Warner Cable’s negotiations with Fox over Padres programming are active and ongoing.
Specifically:
- Fox Sports San Diego’s statement that Time Warner Cable is not negotiating is untrue. Many emails, phone conversations and other exchanges have occurred as we work together to reach agreement.
Time Warner Cable was the last party to offer a formal proposal. Fox has not delivered a formal counter to Time Warner Cable’s last proposal.- In fact, we received a proposal from them today and are working on a response.
- Four of the six potential distributors of Fox Sports San Diego programming have not been able to reach agreement with Fox. Perhaps this explains the Fox Sports San Diego spokesperson's confusion as to who has submitted proposals and when. Fox is out of step with many different distributors, not just Time Warner Cable.
- The difficulty in reaching agreement centers around Fox’s demand for a nearly 400% increase over what Time Warner Cable and our customers paid to see the Padres last year. It is an unreasonable demand.
At Time Warner Cable, we’re sports fans too and we're eager to reach a reasonable agreement so our customers can enjoy the Padres games. We will continue to talk as often as possible, offer proposals and negotiate with Fox in good faith. It is our hope that Fox will accurately represent the nature of these negotiations. False statements and inaccuracies only serve to make an agreement more difficult to reach and hurt the sports fans we are both trying to serve.
I need to say that it was unfair for me to say that Time Warner Cable doesn't care. I'm sure they care, but facts are facts and, the fact is, from a customer perspective, nothing's happened so far for Time Warner Cable customers wanting to see the Padres.
So based on this statement, Time Warner Cable says they're still negotiating and claim to have sent over the last proposal with no response from Fox.
TWC also brings up the 400% increase over the price of 4SD, which is fair as a complaint, but I still think might actually be justified.
I mean, I was as big a fan of 4SD as anybody, but the difference between FSSD and 4SD is night and day. Even if we were to consider the Padres related programming as equal, FSSD is a proper sports channel. 4SD's second most popular programming after Padres was probably Sam the Cooking Guy.
But still, if what TWC is saying is true, then things may actually be worse off than they are, because one of the two parties in the negotiation is lying... Or at the very least, really misrepresenting the other party, which means we aren't close to a resolution.
One other question I had... In regards to four of six carriers not reaching agreement... What are the options? I count Cox, DirectTV, TWC, ATT UVerse, Dish Network? Is there another one I don't know about? Gimme that 6th option, yo.
In any case, if I weren't under contract and I had TWC, I'd still drop TWC (no offense, Ann). Because regardless of who's holding who over the coals, I'm a Padres Fan and I pay for cable to watch the Padres and if I can't watch the Padres, then I don't really want to pay for cable.
If I'm under contract, I guess I wait it out, but I still complain that I want FSSD before the All-Star Break.