08:55 – Time-Warner Cable just raised the stakes in its month-long dispute with CBS. TWC now offers a free set of rabbit ears to any TWC subscriber in areas that are affected by the CBS blackout.
I really wish that TWC, Comcast, and the other cable TV companies would start playing hardball with the networks and affiliates, whose demands for high payments to allow the cable TV companies to carry their free OTA signals is nothing but a money grab. The cable TV companies should simply tell ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC that in future they will pay zero to carry those signals. If the networks and affiliates don’t agree, fine. The cable TV companies will simply drop their signals. Given that something like 85% of the population watches those signals on cable TV, will the networks and affiliates really be willing to risk losing 85% of their audiences? I don’t think so. As to subscribers, TWC has the right answer. Give them a free set of rabbit ears.
We’re still building and shipping science kits, anything from two or three a day to five or six a day. We’ve already exceeded last year’s total sales, with more than a week left in August. Not to mention September through December, which last year accounted for about 48% of the total year’s sales. We’re getting low on the subassemblies we need to build more chemistry and biology kits, so this weekend we’ll do a batch of 60 or 90 biology small parts bags and 120 chemistry small parts bags.