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K.C. Neel
The riff between Time Warner and Disney continues to widen, with Disney asking the FCC to force AOL-Time Warner to split its content and conduit units into two separate businesses.
Disney plans to present a detailed plan to the FCC recommending that Time Warner spin off its cable systems from its content businesses. Time Warner executives pooh-poohed the proposal. They also said Disney should practice what it preaches. Almost 70% of ABC's primetime programming is Disney-owned, Time Warner says. Disney owns ABC.
If the FCC isn't prepared to force Time Warner to break up its businesses, Disney is asking the agency to stringently monitor the combined AOL-Time Warner to avoid monopolistic abuses.
Meanwhile, Time Warner and AOL are trying to appease skeptical regulators by expanding a multiple ISP trial in Columbus, Ohio, to include more providers. The trial, started weeks ago involving 50 Time Warner Cable and 50 CompuServe employees, is being expanded to include independent ISPs including EarthLink and Juno Online. AOL owns CompuServe.
Time Warner chairman Gerry Levin told analysts last week the company has settled on an open access template agreement that would give AOL and other ISPs access to Time Warner's networks.
Time Warner is also trying to get out from under its exclusive Road Runner contracts that expire in 2001. Levin is talking with Road Runner partners AT&T, Compaq and Microsoft, and he hopes to have a new deal in place by the end of the year. The U.S. Justice Department is forcing AT&T to divest Road Runner as part of its acquisition of MediaOne, and Levin plans to use that ownership change as a way of getting out of his Road Runner contracts.
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