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Time Warner Cable may not be in a rush to end the CBS blackout, but it's not leaving subscribers out in the cold. The TV provider is now giving away a "limited quantity" of basic TV antennas in the Dallas, Green Bay, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and New York City regions. For those who don't snag a free antenna, the company is also offering $20 in credit toward buying a unit at certain Best Buy stores in those same cities. These sorts of stopgap measures aren't new, but they may provide some comfort to TWC viewers who aren't likely to watch CBS channels through cable anytime soon.
[Image credit: Adrian Clark, Flickr]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: TWC Conversations
Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt today sent an open letter to CBS CEO Leslie Moonves today, expressing a desire to resume negotiations and end the current programming blackout. In the document, which was reportedly received by CBS executives at the same time it was sent to reporters, Britt proposes that TWC make the network's stations available to consumers with an a-la-carte pricing model -- the cable company will hand over the entire tariff to CBS. While the terms are being discussed, Britt expects CBS to give permission to resume broadcasts immediately, and to re-enable CBS.com access for TWC internet subscribers as well. The bizarre "open" nature of this letter makes it possible to conclude that today's action was simply a public-relations ploy, giving the impressions that Time Warner is being generous by bringing this peace offering to the table. We imagine the situation is significantly more complex than this single-page letter would make it seem, however.
Update: CBS has provided a short response to the letter, calling a "sham" and an "empty gesture." For the complete war of words, check out both the letter and response in full after the break.
[Photo by Jonathan Fickies/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Deadline, AP (Yahoo)
It seems unlikely that it's the last time the country will be cut off from the internet given its past history, but Syria does now appear to be back online following a nationwide blackout that began yesterday afternoon. As the BBC reports, state-run media in the country had attributed the problem to a "fault in optical fibre cables," but most have cast doubt on those claims, suggesting instead that it's much more likely the blackout was the result of a deliberate shutdown by the government.
Filed under: Internet
Via: @ckanal (Twitter)
Source: BBC
History has a way of repeating itself, and the turmoil in Syria is proving no exception -- though potentially for the better. Following a communications blackout that began Thursday, reports have surfaced from Renesys, the AP, the BBC and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that internet and phone access has resumed across major swaths of the country as of Saturday. President al-Assad's office and rebels accuse each other of severing the links, although the US State Department doesn't see there being much debate: it believes the near-simultaneous cut was an attempt by Assad to disrupt opposition that has been using the internet as one of its coordinating tools. It's difficult to know if links will remain intact when battles inside the country are as fierce as ever. While there's some comfort to be had in knowing that technologies like satellite internet access are available if the lines go dark once again, we just hope that peace comes to the country instead.
[Image credit: Aziz1005, Wikimedia Commons]
Filed under: Networking, Internet
Source: Renesys, BBC, Associated Press
