Following up on yesterday’s post about retransmission consent negotiations between Time Warner Cable and broadcaster LIN TV, there are a few additional details.

Some blogs had interesting reactions, such as CrunchGear and VideoNuze.  Since I’m not a sports fan, I neglected to note that this past weekend’s football games focused a spotlight on this issue.  According to Multichannel News, Time Warner and LIN continued their talks yesterday. A Bloomberg story from Friday adds some nuance about the financial issues lying behind the negotiations.

Viewers of a LIN station in New York, WIVB Buffalo, got upset when they noticed some critical comments were being deleted on an online forum.  For example:

• A viewer in Lewiston: “I thought these forums were for discussion, complaints, compliments, etc? Why is it every time I come to this forum, the posts about the TW?CHANNEL4 are deleted/removed? Whats up with that???”
• A viewer in Tonawanda: “I came here to topix on my lunch hour to find that there are all of the sudden NO posts about your fight with time warner since SATURDAY!?!?!?!?  Considering that there were about 40 topics here last night, I find it interesting that people who claim to be “connected” would resort to such censorship.”

And so on and so on…

Speaking of online forums, Jeff Simmermon, Director of Digital Communications for Time Warner Cable, did an interview with the blog Austinist about the situation with KXAN, the LIN station in Austin, TX. In addition, Simmermon and KXAN knocked gloves on Twitter. Here are some excerpts:

whitneyredman: @KXAN_News KXAN and LIN TV is freaking laaaame.
JeffTWC: @whitneyredman — I know the feeling, Whitney. I can’t decide this any more than KXAN can … it’s all up to LIN TV.
whitneyredman: @jeffTWC Does LIN TV have a Twitter?
JeffTWC: @whitneyredman — no, they’re just a poor little media conglomerate with a couple TV stations to limp by on …
KXAN_News: @JeffTWC It’s not ALL up to LIN, Jeff. Check out the facts at http://blogs.kxan.com/kxantimewarner
JeffTWC: @KXAN_News — if “less than a penny per day per subscriber” is such a piddly sum, why are you guys making such a stink?
KXAN_News: @jeffTWC I guess we could ask you the same thing…up there in your big tower in NYC.
JeffTWC: @KXAN_News — everyone knows I’m promoting my business’s best interests here. You’re doing the same thing and calling it journalism.
JeffTWC: @KXAN_News — I think the real question here is: which of us is rubber, and which of us is glue?

Time Warner also launched a website on the issue: The Truth Hurts KXAN! I mentioned that Time Warner produced a video explaining how subscribers can find some content from LIN stations online for free. The video (which you can see embedded below) also explains how to connect your computer to your television in order to watch that programming on TV.

UPDATE: In Green Bay, Time Warner has the website Tell the Truth WLUK!

If you live in one of certain key markets - such as Green Bay, WI; Buffalo, NY; Indianapolis, IN; Dayton, OH; Austin, TX; Toledo, OH; Springfield, MA; Fort Wayne, IN; Mobile, AL; Terra Haute, IN; or Columbus, OH - you may have a keener interest in the issue of retransmission consent than other readers of this blog.

The basics: Cable operators and other Multichannel Video Programming Distributors can’t retransmit broadcast signals (such as NBC, ABC, CBS, or Fox) without first obtaining the broadcaster’s consent.

TV station group LIN TV and Time Warner Cable have been in negotiations, but haven’t reached an agreement. At midnight last Friday morning when the existing carriage deal expired, LIN pulled the signals of 15 stations in 11 markets from Time Warner systems, which affects about 2.7 million of their subscribers.

While negotiations continued over the weekend, alternatives were promoted. LIN suggested Time Warner customers could switch to such competitors as Dish Network or FiOS TV. Time Warner has given away around 50,000 antennas to allow over-the-air reception of those broadcast signals and has also produced an online video that shows people how they can watch some broadcast programming over the Internet for free.

If you missed NCTA’s Kyle McSlarrow on C-SPAN’s The Communicators Saturday night, you can now watch the episode online (or catch the repeat tonight on C-SPAN 2 at 8:00 p.m. ET). One of the first questions he addressed was the issue of retransmission consent. NCTA has expressed concern that a number of carriage deals are set to expire at the end of this year, about six weeks before the Digital Television Transition occurs on February 17. There is potential for consumer confusion and disruption with these deals being renegotiated during this period.

While the NAB has volunteered a four-week quiet period surrounding the DTV transition date - two weeks before Feb. 17 and two weeks after - McSlarrow has proposed that a slightly longer quiet period would be beneficial for consumers, while hardly tipping the balance of power in retrans negotiations.