Time Warner Cable Is Giving Away Free Antenna’s To Fight CBS Blackout

Time Warner Cable is still suffering from a CBS blackout, and the company’s current solution is antennas.

TWC is offering to give a free basic antenna to a limited number of subscribers in four of its major markets. Customers can also choose a $20 Best Buy credit towards a more advanced antenna of their choice.

The move is meant to keep CBS shows flowing through over-the-air broadcasting.

Time Warner Cable is offering the free antennas through TWC retail cable stores in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Los Angeles/Desert Cities, New York, and Milwaukee and Green Bay in Wisconsin.

A basic antenna is fine for some customers but won’t grab local cable channel broadcasts when the CBS transmitter is further away from the customer’s home.

CBS claims Time Warner Cable has negotiated with a “combative and non-productive spirit” and that its actions have been “injurious not only to our many affected viewers, but also to Time Warner Cable itself.” Time Warner Cable executives claim to have “offered to pay reasonable increases, but CBS’s demands are out of line and unfair.”

Time Warner Cable claims CBS is asking for more than any other over-the-air channel providers require.

Another option for some customers is the use of the Aereo service which costs $7.99 per month but also offers DVR capabilities for all local shows.

CBS is believed to be seeking $2 per TWC subscriber. The company is currently paying somewhere between 75 cents and $1 per customer.

Blackouts have occurred at other providers in the past but the length of the CBS blackout has cause a big headache for TWC and CBS.

Do you think TWC’s free antenna program is a good solution or a slap in the face to customers who have been missing out on their favorite CBS shows?