Co. joins TCI, Comcast pacting with vid music channel
NEW YORK — Video music channel the Box continued its distribution momentum by signing a 10-year affiliation agreement with cable giant Time Warner.
Neither the Box nor Time Warner Cable would indicate exactly how many subscribers the new deal will add to the music channel’s sub total.
But the agreement marks a change in how Time Warner Cable perceives the Box. Three years ago Time Warner dealt the Box a crippling blow when it dropped the channel from its 1 million-subscriber showcase system in New York City.
Box president Alan McGlade said Time Warner signed a new deal because of his channel’s improved programming,
The Box does not charge a license fee and pays cable operators an incentive payment — which can go up to $2 per subscriber — to launch the channel.
Prior to the Time Warner deal, the Box signed new affiliate agreements with Tele-Communications Inc., Intermedia Partners and Comcast Corp.
The Miami Beach-based Box is owned by TCI Music, a publicly traded company that’s mostly owned by TCI’s Liberty Media Corp.
