According to Variety, NBC Universal are in a carriage-negotiation standoff with Charter that has a probability of seeing millions of customers lose access to channels owned by NBCU starting January 1st. The reason being is that Charter have rejected a package price for NBCU's channels that are similar to those paid by other cable and television distributors. It is due to that, that negotiations have come to a halt.
The results of this was a marketing campaign to pressure Charter's customers into calling them and ask to take a more flexible negotiation stance. If a deal does not come to fruition, there will be a total blackout of NBC Universal-related programming starting January 1st of 2017. The channels affected are as follows:Bravo, E!, Syfy, USA, MSNBC, CNBC, and Oxygen.
When reached for comment by Variety, this is what NBC Universal had to say:
"NBCUniversal values its partnership with Charter Spectrum, our third largest distributor. Charter Spectrum has been unyielding in its demand for terms superior to those agreed to by the rest of the industry, including larger distributors. Given this position, we feel the responsibility to inform viewers that Charter Spectrum may drop NBCUniversal’s networks at the end of the year, including NBC, Telemundo, USA, Bravo and hit shows including the #1 show on TV—Sunday Night Football, WWE, the Golden Globes, This is Us and more."
(SOURCE: http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/nbcuniversal-charter-1201949840/)
Understandably, this is a huge story for pro wrestling as well, knowing that WWE is the leading promotion in all of the world and this blackout if it were to happen, could drastically cut down most of WWE's viewership for RAW and SmackDown Live, which both are on the USA Network. Seeing how ratings have been lately for World Wrestling Entertainment, they cannot afford a loss as big as 2 million viewers or even more, given that Charter is the third largest distributor and a large part of the United States has Time Warner Cable.
We will keep you updated on this story as things continue to unfold.......
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