Kansas City customers of Time Warner Cable are upset that the area’s top-rated local station KMBC and its sister stations 1012 (KMBC HD), 7 (KCWE), 1007 (KCWE HD), 975 (THIS TV Kansas City), 985 (METV Kansas City) have been off the air since midnight Monday evening.
But at least we aren’t alone.

Locally-owned Hearst TV stations in several other markets are also being blacked out in what could turn out to be a long battle in the middle of a TV Sweeps period:

Hawaii KITV-ABC
Boston WCVB-ABC
Portland, ME WMTV-ABC
Hartford, VT WNNE-ABC
Plattsburgh, NY WPTZ-NBC
Plattsburgh, NY WPTZ-D2 – This TV
Winston-Salem, NC WXII-NBC
Kansas City KCWE-CW
Kansas City KMBC-ABC
Lincoln, NE KETV-ABC
Manchester, NH WMUR-ABC
Louisville, KY WLKY-CBS
Cincinnati WLWT-NBC
Pittsburgh WTAE-ABC

Both sides have been very aggressive in keeping customers informed about the situation. Hearst sent out a news release Tuesday informing its Time Warner customers how they could switch cable providers, and even provided phone numbers to encourage them.
Time Warner today emailed its customers information claiming Hearst was demanding a 300% increase in rates. It also provided ways to still get KMBC—without switching cable providers.
“Time Warner Cable has reached hundreds of agreements with other broadcasters without broadcaster blackouts, but Hearst’s demand for a nearly 300% increase is way out of line,” noted its customer email. ”That kind of outrageous increase is unfair to our customers and unsustainable for our business.”
TWC has also provided answers to “Frequently Asked Questions,” including whether customers will have their bills adjusted since they cannot receive content from KMBC and other Hearst TV stations. The short answer, “NO!.”

FAQs

Q: Why is this happening again? It seems like this happens all the time.
A: Unfortunately, these kinds of disputes have become more common over the past few years. Cable TV prices are rising and one cause is higher fees being demanded by greedy broadcasters – as their advertising dollars decline, they want cable customers to make up the difference. And if we don’t agree to their outrageous demands, they take away their programming. We don’t think it’s fair for TV stations to hold programming hostage for our customers, and we are working hard to keep the programming on our lineup while also trying to hold down the cost of TV.
Q: Why shouldn’t I just go ahead and switch to DirecTV/Dish/FIOS/AT&T now?
A: Switching makes no sense; most of these contract blackouts are over within a matter of days. But switching isn’t really the answer — any provider you switch to may eventually face the same kind of blackout threats. In fact, the American Television Alliance reports that broadcasters have blacked out signals in nearly 100 different cities since January 2011, with customers of DirecTV, Dish Network, AT&T U-Verse, Verizon FIOS and other major cable companies suffering actual or threatened blackouts. We think blackouts are unfair to viewers, which is why we continue to negotiate hard on your behalf to try to keep prices down.
Q: Will you be crediting me for the channel(s) that go dark?
A: Remember that customers do not pay for channels on an individual basis — they pay for a package of channels plus the technology and service required to deliver those channels. So we do not typically offer a credit for channels that have been blacked out.
Q: It’s great that you can bring me national network programming from another city, but why couldn’t you bring from a city that’s closer? Or why couldn’t you bring it to my city, too?
A: Certain rules limit our ability to import TV signals from other cities. We have done so where those rules currently permit it.