WealthTV Files Carriage Complaint Against Time Warner
WealthTV CEO says Time Warner "stole" idea for HD lifestyle network, calls MOJO "inferior knock-off"
By Jon Hemingway -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/21/2007 8:32:00 AM
Time Warner Cable is not spreading the wealth, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Communications Commission.
WealthTV, an independent lifestyle and entertainment network that caters to the affluent, 25-49 year-old male audience, filed the complaint against the nation’s second largest operator alleging the company is playing favorites by denying WealthTV carriage while accepting the MOJO network. The latter, WealthTV points out, is a network with similar programming that targets the same audience demographic and also happens to be part owned by Time Warner Cable.
MOJO, an HD-only channel, is part of iN DEMAND Networks, which counts Comcast, Cox and the Time Warner Entertainment - Advance/Newhouse partnership as shareholders.
“[Time Warner Cable] jawboned us while they studied our channel so they could copy it,” WealthTV CEO Robert Herring, Sr. said in a statement, “Once they saw its success, they stole our idea and created an inferior knock-off, MOJO, and launched that instead of WealthTV. It’s more lucrative for them to carry their own channel than to give us a fair chance to reach the public.”
WealthTV, which is also a high-definition network, has carriage on Verizon’s FiOS, AT&T’s U-verse and Charter Communications among other smaller operators. WealthTV is carried in HD on-demand on Time Warner Cable’s San Antonio system.
“We’d rather work with TWC than bring this complaint, but they’ve left us no choice,” WealthTV President Charles Herring said in a statement. “We hope to get this resolved swiftly so that both we and TWC can turn back to what both companies want to do – namely bring TV viewers great shows that entertain and educate in high definition.”
Time Warner had no comment at press time.
