(3 of 3)
Meanwhile, Time Warner and Disney will soon be back at the table. In New York City, TW has offered to make nice by giving all its cable customers a refund on two full days of basic service, plus a free month of a premium channel they weren't already receiving (the latter is a tactic that used to be called sales promotion). In Washington chief Disney lobbyist Preston Padden was serving up unctuousness by the ladle. After the FCC officially scolded Time Warner in midweek, Padden intoned, "We are incredibly grateful to the people at the FCC, who were placed under a completely unfair burden by this whole contrived crisis."
A more honest posture from Disney would have them saying, simply, "Gotcha!" Or, at worst, "We won." But even if they did, the award for most honorable statement would still go to Fred Dressler, the Time Warner Cable programming chief, who played a pivotal role in the botched negotiations. Asked what he thought his company had gained from the entire adventure, Dressler said, "One of the things we've learned is that whatever we do that affects the viewing habits of the American public is of greater importance than anyone had imagined."
--Reported by Sally B. Donnelly/Washington, Mike Eskenazi/New York and Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles