A contract dispute has left Wauseon without WUPW (Fox Toledo).

Below are the two sides to the story:

WUPW
September 15, 2008

Dear Time Warner Cable subscriber,

Time Warner has a short-term agreement to carry the signal of FOX Toledo, Toledo’s only FOX affiliated television station, on its cable system. The agreement expires on October 2, 2008.

For the past two months, our parent company, LIN TV, has attempted to reach a new long-term agreement or a contract extension with Time Warner for both its analog and high-definition signals, however, Time Warner has not responded to our proposals.
We know how important it is to keep you informed, and therefore, we want you to know the FACTS:
  • Time Warner charges you a fee to provide FOX Toledo. It also charges you a fee to provide cable networks, which you may or may not watch. Time Warner shares that fee with the cable networks; however, it does not share that fee with us. In essence, it takes our signal for free and resells it for a profit.
  • The fair compensation we are asking for as part of our contract negotiations with Time Warner amounts to less than a penny a day per subscriber. Cable companies often say that local broadcasters have “unreasonable demands” when it comes to carriage agreements. We do not believe that a penny a day per subscriber is an unreasonable demand for our award-winning news, sports and entertainment programming. It is actually much less than what cable companies compensate many of its cable networks, none of which have the viewing of your local FOX station.
  • It is unreasonable for Time Warner to think that it can carry our signal without paying fair market value, less than a penny a day per subscriber, and still charge you for it. If Time Warner provided our signal to you for free, we would not be asking for payment. However, they charge you a lot of money and don’t want to pay for the signals.
  • We only want the same treatment as the cable networks, so that we can compete on equal footing and provide both high quality local news and premium sports and entertainment programming. Without our fair share of subscriber fees, our news and program quality will suffer and we will not be able to compete with the cable networks.
  • Under Federal Law, Time Warner cannot carry FOX Toledo without an agreement. LIN TV has successfully reached agreements with nearly every cable, satellite and telecommunications company, except for Time Warner. Our agreements include providers in Toledo, such as Comcast, DISH and DirecTV, all of whom acknowledged the fair market value of LIN TV’s stations. We hope Time Warner will negotiate with us so that we may reach an agreement before our contract expires on October 2, 2008.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and we encourage you to contact Time Warner and tell them you don’t want to lose FOX Toledo, and your favorite news, sports and entertainment programming including NFL Football Games on FOX, the NFC Divisional Playoff games on January 10th and 11th, the NFC Championship Game on January 18th, Major League Baseball’s 2008 National League Championship Series from October 9th to the 18th, the World Series from October 22nd to the 30th, The Simpsons and Seinfeld. Time Warner’s phone number is: 614-481-5000.

You may continue to watch our award-winning news and top-rated programming through alternative means, such as an antenna or by switching to a satellite such as DISH. Time Warner subscribers who make the switch to DISH will receive a $50 incentive from DISH! You can contact them at: (888) DISH-950.

We pledge to keep you informed throughout the process, which is why we have dedicated this area on our web site for information and resources.
Thank you for supporting local television,

Raymond Maselli
President and General Manager
WUPW-TV FOX Toledo

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Time/Warner
Time Warner Cable is working hard to get WUPW back in our channel lineup.
LIN TV Corporation has pulled these signals from your lineup.
Lin TV Corporation is trying to make up for lower ratings and advertising revenue by adding fees that
will fall, ultimately, on the backs of our cable customers. We don’t believe that you should be forced to
subsidize Lin TV Corporation's costs by paying for programming that you can get for free with an antenna
or online.

Because Time Warner Cable was unable to reach an agreement with the channel owners and managers,
Lin TV Corporation has pulled its signal and we are no longer able to transmit station WUPW.

We asked Lin TV Corporation for an extension of our agreement allowing us to keep these channels on your
lineup. And they said, “No.”

We are doing everything we can to get these channels back. In the meantime, many of your favorite shows, like House, Family Guy, The Simpsons and CSI, can be viewed at the Fox network websites.

Questions? Call 1-877-77-CABLE

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