FSN Ohio Withholds HD Signal From Time Warner

By John Ourand, Staff Writer

FSN Ohio is withholding HD broadcasts of Blue Jacket games from Time Warner Cable because of a carriage dispute, and there's a possibility Fox Sports may pull itself from Time Warner's lineup before the Cavaliers start their season on October 31. Sources say FSN Ohio is seeking a license fee increase to about $1.50 per subscriber even though it lost the rights to the Indians to SportsTime Ohio, an RSN with which Time Warner has a financial arrangement. “Time Warner single-handedly doubled the cost of sports programming in Ohio by launching a second RSN when it was completely unnecessary," an FSN spokesperson said. "Time Warner has been out of contract since January, but in an act of good faith, we have allowed them to carry FSN Ohio as before." Time Warner responded that negotiations are going well. "From our point of view, negotiations are progressing -- both sides are speaking on a regular basis and as a matter of fact, there is a meeting today [Friday]," a Time Warner spokesperson said. "But this deal should not be negotiated in the press; its simply not the way they should do business."