Aaron Barnhart's TVBARN.COM

Time Warner and ABC: It's war

Following months of fruitless negotiations with two leading broadcasters, Time Warner Cable did what it had threatened to do: It yanked the signals of ABC-owned stations off its systems in seven markets, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Houston, in the wee hours of Monday morning.

Disney (owner of ABC) and Time Warner had agreed to a fifth extension of their current retransmission agreement, which expired Dec. 31. That extension expired Sunday — but federal law requires a cable company to keep broadcast signals on its systems through significant Nielsen ratings periods. That means ABC signals should have stayed on Time Warner systems through May 24 (a fact KABC-TV pointed outin a press release Monday morning).

About 3.5 million households were affected nationally. Hearst-Argyle Television, which owns or operates another 11 ABC affiliates, is also deadlocked with Time Warner. But with the current extension set to run out on Monday, the two sides agreed to another 60-day delay in their talks. Hearst-Argyle is the largest independent owner of ABC stations (including KMBC in Kansas City).

Disney may be getting singled out for its opposition to the Time Warner-AOL merger. And then there was the untimely news last week that another Disney-owned network, ESPN, will be asking Time Warner and all other cable operators for 20 percent higher subscriber fees this year. The increase, which is the maximum one-year hike allowed, is the result of ESPN paying huge fees for football and baseball. It raises the per-subscriber fee to an eye-popping $1.20 per head per month (i.e., a company that serves 300,000 cable subscribers will fork over $360,000 a month for ESPN, whether those subscribers ever tune in the channel or not). The news prompted a predictably harsh response from Time Warner.

At issue with both Disney and Hearst-Argyle have been higher subscriber fees for certain cable networks. Disney is in the process of converting its Disney Channel from a pay-cable network to basic cable. That, says Disney, will cost $300 million to pull off, and it wants Time Warner — and thus Time Warner's subscribers — to share the costs. Hearst-Argyle is asking for higher fees for Lifetime; it owns 50 percent of the network, one of the highest-rated in cable.

In addition, both companies want Time Warner Cable to carry their newer cable offerings: Toon Disney and SoapNet for Disney, Lifetime Movie Network for Hearst. Wonder how serious Hearst is about all this? The company appointed Lifetime officials to do their bidding in the talks with Time Warner.

Dave puts the "UK" back in "yuks"

Five years to the month of his appearance in London, England, David Letterman is returning to British television.

Letterman's "Late Show" hasn't been available to viewers in the U.K. since the Paramount Comedy Channel pulled the plug on Letterman last summer, citing low ratings. But the ITV2 network has come to the rescue. Beginning tonight it will air "Late Show" at 11:50 p.m. weeknights on a one-show-delayed basis. Monday's telecast will feature guests Lennox Lewis (the British world heavyweight champion) and Natalie Portman in a program that aired Friday on CBS.

ITV2 is available over-the-air with the ONdigital service and via most cable operators, including Cable & Wireless, Telewest, Cable London and Eurobell, according to the ITV2 Web site.

But that's hardly blanketing the United Kingdom, according to one Letterman fan in the U.K. who says ITV, which launched ITV2 in 1998, is not offering the channel to subscribers of its rival, Sky Digital. "Unfortunately for me, and many other viewers, ITV2 is simply not available," grouses viewer Dave Porter in Northumberland.

In May 1995, Letterman went to London for what he hoped to be the latest in an unbroken string of successful road-show performances. He was also recovering from a cascade of negative reviews that rained down on him a few weeks before, following a disastrous appearance as host of the Academy Awards.

Alas, London was no help. Letterman's five broadcasts from England were less than warmly received on either side of the pond. As with the Oscars disappointment, Dave had only himself and his staff to blame: The production stuck closely — too closely — to the template used for the previous year's road shows from Los Angeles. Unlike Jack Paar, who went to England 35 years earlier and sought out the country's finest ranconteurs, including Robert Morley, Malcolm Muggeridge and Bea Lillie, Letterman relied heavily on pre-taped sketches and imported guests like David Duchovny.

"Late Show in London" scored only so-so Nielsen ratings. Within two months Dave's ratings edge over Jay Leno would be gone for good.

The unloved — and unlovable — V-chip

It was with a mixture of pity and contempt that I regarded the measly display rack set up in my local Circuit City store this week. The rack was there to tell parents about the V-chip, the show-blocking technology once heralded by Vice President Gore as ``a new tool ... to help parents ensure that television reflects their own family values.''

Unintentionally, though, the sad-looking display served as little more than a tombstone for the V-chip — dead-on-arrival from the moment it hit the showroom floor.

I'm one of the few television critics in the country who actually likes the idea of the V-chip, or more specifically, of ``parental controls,'' electronic gatekeepers that keep kids from TV shows they shouldn't be watching. The V-chip has always struck me as the perfect counterbalance to deregulation. All right, broadcasters, go ahead and cancel the family hour. "Springer" at 4 p.m.? Knock yourselves out. Oh, and by the way — we're giving parents a crude little robot that will keep their kids from seeing most of what you put on the air these days. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

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Pick To Click: Up All Night in the County Jail

Prison — the final frontier. If you're talk-show host Bill Maher, and you've already exhausted your list of B-list celebrities and "citizen panelists," your next untapped source of future guests for "Politically Incorrect" just might be behind bars. We'll find out this week, thanks to celebrity sheriff Joe Arpaio of Phoenix, who let "PI" tape six episodes last month at the "tent city" he set up inside the Maricopa County (Ariz.) Jail. The shows air this week on ABC (11:35 p.m.). (Note: ABC added a sixth jailcast late last week; it will air May 8.)

Arpaio is the self-proclaimed "World's Toughest Sheriff'' for his hard-nosed treatment of inmates (housing them in old military tents, for starters). But a 1996 appearance on "PI" was so riddled with gaffes that Maher at one point said Arpaio might also be the world's stupidest sheriff.

Tonight's opening panel should give Arpaio a chance either to redeem himself or to dig himself a little deeper hole. He and Maher will be joined by comedian D.L. Hughley, Maricopa inmate Stephen Russo and William Schulz, director of Amnesty International, which has taken issue with Sheriff Joe's incarceration methods. Other guests this week include "Hurricane" Carter, Mike Farrell and TV judge Greg Mathis.

Maher: "Still not as bad as I thought it would be"

The daily digest ... for May 1, 2000: A reader writes, "Did I miss your mention that ABC is bringing 'Sports Night' back for two weeks during sweeps? Of course, this could be a blessing or a curse for us 'Sports Night' fans, depending on how the numbers turn up. If the show doesn't do well during sweeps, it could give ABC even more justification for cancellation. However, the fact that they're even bothering to bring it back seems to bode well for renewal." An odd oversight on my part — "Sports Night" airs May 9 and 16 in its usual time period. Here's the capsule from the return episode: "While at Anthony's trying to drown their fears about the future of 'Sports Night,' Dana meets a mysterious stranger who seems to know a great deal about the bidding for Continental Corp.; and Dan tries to convince Casey that a move to L.A. might not be a bad thing." Or to cable, if need be ...

Tired of all those TV sitcoms where the lead characters work at a magazine? ABC is developing a new show that will offer an alternative: All the characters work on a Webzine. It will be a reality series (produced by the folks who brought you "The Real World") and will feature real people making a real zine. Hiring — er, I mean casting — begins this month; see the production company's Web site for details ... And those of you interested in Nielsen comparisons between David Letterman's and Jay Leno's shows should glance at this story from Variety's Paula Bernstein.

Previously on TV Barn:
28 April: Reader mail: Pets.com-troversy, Fox News vs. the others, TV Barn spam
27 April: What happened to the V-chip; more on puppets
26 April: Fox News Channel rocks; Scully directs "X-Files"
25 April: Pets.com sues over sock puppet
24 April: Earth Day on ABC; Elian on display

On this date... in 1997, Conan O'Brien visits Houston, Tex., where his talk show is delayed each night until 2:40 a.m., in search of viewers and/or fans. His journey takes him to convenience stores, a hospital, and a bus station where he meets "Buffalo" — a 300-pound motorcyclist who wants to know, "Where's the little fat dude (sidekick Andy Richter)?" -- Tom Heald