TV network CBS and cable provider Time Warner Cable have ended their payment dispute and programming resumed to millions of homes Monday night, the Associated Press reported.
The agreement has ended the blackout, which lasted for a month. CBS and CBS-owned stations, like Showtime Network, affected more than three million homes in Dallas, Los Angeles and New York. The blackout began Aug. 2.
The companies were in dispute about how much Time Warner Cable Inc. would pay for CBS Corp. programming.
The disagreement comes at a touchy time for networks and cable companies as "more and more Americans are turning to alternative ways to watch TV including online or via Roku boxes or Apple TV," news reports said.
Added pressure was on the two companies to reach an agreement since the start of football season is due to begin, and the current U.S Open tennis tournament began in New York last week
All total, the blackout affected about 1.1 million of New York's 7.4 million television households that get CBS.
CBS estimated the blackout cut the network's national viewership by about 1 percent.
"This was a far more protracted dispute than anyone at CBS anticipated," Chief Executive Leslie Moonves wrote in a memo sent to CBS employees on Sunday. "In spite of the pain it caused to all of us, and most importantly the inconvenience to our viewers who were affected, it was an important one, and one worth pursuing to a satisfactory conclusion. That has been achieved."
