The increasing popularity and availability of popular television shows online is at the heart of contentious programing fee negotiations between Walt Disney Co and Time Warner Cable Inc, according to a source close to the discussions.
Millions of homes in major cities such as New York and Los Angeles could see their local ABC broadcast, ESPN channels and some Disney channels go dark if an agreement cannot be reached before midnight on Wednesday.
A deal is yet to be struck but both sides confirmed in a statement released on Sunday that “significant progress” had been made in their negotiations.
The progress was in part an agreement to cool off on a slew of hard-hitting adverts such as Disney warning customers to switch to satellite operators DirecTV and DISH Network or phone company Verizon Communications.
Disney is in advanced talks with Apple Inc to allow some of its current programming to be available for a rental fee of 99 cents and according to one source, Time Warner Cable believe they should be offered comparable deals or even for free through its video-on-demand service.
Time Warner Cable has also balked at Disney’s request to pay a fee for ESPN3.com, a sports website which carries some live events online but is only available to the broadband customers of its cable operator partners.
Disney was looking for around 10 cents a customer each month according to Bloomberg last month and Time Warner Cable has 9.2 million broadband customers.
ESPN3, which showed several World Cup matches earlier this summer, already has a deal in place with larger cable company Comcast Corp.
