Fox Soccer Channel Still On Time Warner After Brief Extension Agreed: Open Thread

January 1, 2010 was supposed to mark day one of Fox Soccer Channel not being available on Time Warner Cable due to a squabble over how much Time Warner would pay News Corp., which owns Fox Soccer Channel (as well as other Fox networks), for the right to carry its cable and broadcast channels.

According to The Wall Street Journal, News Corp. is asking for a $1 per subscriber each month for its Fox channels while Time Warner has suggested a figure closer to 30 cents per subscriber.

With both companies unable to agree contract terms by the December 31, 2009 deadline, Fox Soccer Channel (and other Fox networks) were supposed to go dark at midnight and remain dark until an agreement could be reached.

However, Time Warner Cable has received a brief extension from Fox while negotiations continue. But according The Orlando Sentinel newspaper, a three hour extension has been granted until 3am ET January 1st in hopes that a last minute deal can be agreed.

LATEST UPDATE: In a brief statement at 5:30 a.m. EST Friday, Scott Grogin, Fox senior vice president for communications, said “we are still negotiating.”

FINAL UPDATE: Late Friday, Fox and Time Warner announced that they made a deal to allow Fox networks to continue being shown on Time Warner Cable. Terms of the deal were not announced.

Since Fox Soccer Channel shows the majority of Premier League matches on US television, the risk of losing FSC is alarming news for Time Warner Cable customers. So here at EPL Talk, we’ve decided to create this open thread to encourage you to share your experiences, and to read what other Time Warner customers are saying. Plus, we’ll bring you the news on the latest developments and will share with you what other options are available to you to get Fox Soccer Channel.

Here are the latest updates:

• According to EPL Talk reader @mike10778, there’s an update on his local Time Warner Cable website that says “if we lose Fox Soccer Channel, we’ll get compensated with GolTV.” No offense to GolTV, but as a Premier League viewer, that’s like going to an expensive steak restaurant only to be served a piece of meat from Denny’s. Michael adds that “I’m calling DirecTV if we lose FSC” and complained that Time Warner Cable “just raised our rates 10%.”
• EPL Talk blogger Dave Warner brought an interesting story to my attention on the website, NewTeeVee. It describes how Time Warner – due to the spat with Fox – is explaining to its customers how to connect a computer to your TV set so you can watch Hulu and Fancast. The irony is that the last thing you would expect a cable company to do is to show you how to watch content online. Watch the video to see how Time Warner Cable walks customers through the step-by-step process.

If you’re upset about Time Warner Cable not agreeing to pay the rate that News Corp is asking for Fox Soccer Channel, you have several other options to get Fox Soccer Channel via other satellite and cable providers:

• DirecTV
• DISH Network
• Verizon FIOS
• AT&T U-verse