Time Warner Cable customers fuming as CBS blackout drags on

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The upcoming football season is likely to provide the tipping point, analysts say, with both CBS and Time warner Cable under increased pressure to resolve their contract dispute, which has blacked out the CBS-owned KCBS Channel 2 and KCAL Channel 9 in more than 1 million Los Angeles homes served by the cable company. Both companies are under increased pressure — from viewers, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission — to resolve their differences.

"This is so frustrating," Justin Bass, a Los Angeles Dodgers fan said. "The whole system is broken. There's no recourse. I just have to sit here and take it." Time Warner Cable customers like Bass, unless they have installed an over-the-air antenna to capture the broadcast signal, have missed nine Dodgers games that have aired on KCAL.

"The problem is, Congress is out, the FCC is waiting to confirm a new chair, and pretty much everyone is resigned to blackouts as the 'new normal,'" said Harold Feld, senior vice president of the public interest group Public Knowledge. The National Football League season starts Sept. 5, and CBS is expected to broadcast its first regular season game Sept. 8. Consumer outrage is expected to ignite if the blackout isn't over by then.


Time Warner Cable customers fuming as CBS blackout drags on