JETS SAVED THE DAY IN FIGHT AGAINST TWC, SAYS CBS’S MOONVES

f it hadn’t been for the New York Jets, the dispute between CBS and Time Warner Cable over retransmission fees — and the blackout that ensued — might have lasted longer than it did, CBS chief Les Moonves indicated on Tuesday. “Time Warner [Cable] realized they couldn’t live without the Jets in New York City,” Moonves told a media conference in New York. Moonves went on to suggest that similar disputes may yet arise with other cable providers who may only now realize that the broadcasters are determined to claim their piece of cable revenue after going without it until 2008. “Five years ago we were getting nothing … in terms of retrans[mission] money. The system was out of whack,” Moonves said. The thinking back then was that since individuals could receive broadcast stations over the air for free, cable companies had no obligation to pay them for their content. Now, he said, 87 percent of CBS viewers access the network via cable or satellite. He dismissed the speculation that Aereo, the service that delivers broadcast stations to subscribers via the Internet, poses much of a threat to the networks’ deals with cable providers for retransmission fees, indicating that more people are talking about Aereo than actually using it. As for himself, he said, “I’m tired of talking about Aereo.”