On Friday, we told you about a battle between NBCUniversal, the parent company of USA Network, and Charter Communications, who provides cable television service to 16 million Americans, that could have led to no Raw or SmackDown for Charter subscibers. The deal for the cable company to carry NBCU shows on channels like USA, Bravo, E!, Syfy, MSNBC, CNBC, and Oxygen expired today, Jan. 1, 2017 - and unless they agreed on a new figure Charter would pay to carry those channels, they’d just stop carrying.
NBCU featured WWE as part of their marketing campaign designed to pressure Charter into signing a new deal, and some Superstars even got into the act on their own:
BELLA ARMY WE NEED YOUR HELP ASAP! @GetSpectrum may drop E! & USA Visit https://t.co/CqmHx3OFNv or call 844-55-DELIVER! #DeliverMyShows
— Nikki & Brie (@BellaTwins) December 30, 2016
Something appears to have worked, at least in the short-term, as Deadline reports the companies have “extended” their negotations, and will keep the channels available to consumers while they continue to try and iron out a new deal.
A new agreement is not in place, so Charter customers - including millions in major markets like Los Angeles and New York City - could be without WWE’s Monday and Tuesday night shows soon. But it looks like the Jan. 2 Raw and Jan. 3 SmackDown are safe for now thanks to this extension.
Stay tuned.
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