DealBook: Obama Says Law School Should Be Two, Not Three, Years

After a Fee Dispute With Time Warner Cable, CBS Goes Dark for Three Million Viewers

CBS stations went black just after 5 p.m. Eastern time. Both sides then issued statements blaming the other for being unreasonable in the negotiations, which were extended from Monday.

The dispute centers on what are known as retransmission fees, which cable companies have increasingly been compelled to pay to broadcasters, despite vigorous protest. CBS’s president, Leslie Moonves, has been a leader in seeking retransmission fees for broadcasters.

The decision to black out the stations means that Time Warner Cable subscribers will not be able to watch CBS programming until a deal is reached. In the past, subscribers have reacted with anger at such suspensions, but generally because they have missed specific programs. In this case, the summer programming roster does not contain many highly popular shows that might drive a settlement. CBS’s biggest appeal this summer is from the show “Under the Dome,” which will not have a new episode until Monday.

But the network does have the P.G.A. golf championship coming in a week. CBS emphasized on Friday that this week’s P.G.A. event was being led by Tiger Woods, who always draws viewers. And CBS, which broadcasts two soap operas, is also likely to gain support from those viewers.

Further down the road is the N.F.L. season, which might be a driving factor in why Time Warner Cable acted now.

Richard Greenfield, a media analyst who follows the company for BTIG Research, said the cable company was in “a once-in-a-lifetime position” to fight this battle because at the moment it does not face the overwhelming leverage of N.F.L. games and the most popular prime-time shows.

In addition, two top series on the Showtime network, owned by CBS, “Dexter” (which is in its final season) and “Ray Donovan,” are now also off the air, even though customers pay a separate fee for them. Time Warner Cable said it would offer a rebate to Showtime subscribers, as well as access to other subscription channels like Starz.

Time Warner Cable has insisted that the fee increases that CBS is asking for are unreasonable; CBS has argued it provides far more value than many cable networks that require much higher fees. Some reports have said CBS is asking for an increase of about 100 percent, to $2 a subscriber, from $1.

A spokesman for the Federal Communications Commission said that the agency was disappointed that the companies had not reached an agreement. “We urge all parties involved to resolve this situation as soon as possible.”

Despite recriminations on Friday from both sides, the negotiations are expected to resume as soon as Monday. That does not mean a quick settlement is likely, however. Mr. Greenfield said he could foresee CBS’s being dark “six weeks, if not more.” An executive close to the CBS side of the talks predicted 10 to 14 days.

In the meantime, CBS is sending messages on the radio and through other outlets urging viewers to complain to Time Warner Cable. The cable company, for its part, was telling customers to buy an antenna or sign up for Aereo, the new service that offers broadcast signals, and was also urging its customers to watch the missing CBS shows through streaming Web sites.

But for customers with Time Warner Cable broadband on Friday, CBS.com was blocking the streaming of shows, instead posting messages.

In almost every previous showdown over retransmission fees, the cable company’s stand has crumbled in short order. Mr. Greenfield said this time could be different because Time Warner Cable could take steps like appealing to Congress and selling CBS’s channel position to another bidder.

CBS stressed that it had never been taken off the air in a retransmission dispute and that it had not stopped offering extensions to keep the talks going.

Maureen Huff, a spokeswoman for Time Warner Cable, said, “We’ve accepted numerous extensions at this point, but it’s become clear that no matter how much time we give them, they’re not willing to come to reasonable terms.”

Brian Stelter contributed reporting.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 2, 2013

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated at one point which company suspended the service. It was Time Warner Cable, not CBS.

DAYUMMMMMMMMMMM!!!! Michael Strahans FIANCE Nicole Is AREAL WINNER . . . Wed Bet Hes QUARTERBACK SACKING That Booty Two Or Three Times A Day!!

Michael Strahans FIANCE Nicole Is AREAL WINNER . . . Wed Bet Hes QUARTERBACK SACKING That Booty Two Or Three Times A Day!! Pics

Three Dewey Alums Launch New Firm

The implosion of Dewey & LeBoeuf has rocked all corners of the legal world. But there is at least one positive result -- a new professional alliance among lawyers who once worked in the national firm's former Hartford, Conn., office.

The specialized financial product and commercial litigation law firm is based in West Hartford, launched by three attorneys who met while working more than 15 years ago in Hartford at what was then known as LeBoeuf, Lamb, Green & MacRae. The attorneys, Jim Reardon, Kathy Scanlon and Pete Vodola, all worked together representing insurance companies and other corporate clients.

Just before the firm's 2007 merger with Dewey Ballantine, which created Dewey & LeBoeuf, Scanlon and Vodola left to work for Pullman & Comley and other Connecticut firms in insurance defense and commercial litigation practices. Reardon moved to Dewey & LeBoeuf's New York office, where he stayed until the bottom fell out earlier this year.

On the up side, Reardon says he gained a big-firm perspective. "I was working for one of the largest litigation firms in the country, on a team of 20 lawyers, and that has really helped me manage large cases," Reardon said. "We can go toe-to-toe with any firm," he said of his new firm, known as Reardon Scanlon Vodola.

One thing the trio learned from their big-firm experience was how to divide the work up but still keep everyone in the loop. "That way we can be responsive to clients' changing needs," Reardon said.

His former colleagues, Vodola and Scanlon, have been working together ever since their early days in Hartford. "We have always worked well together," Scanlon explained. They saw Reardon's recent departure from Dewey & LeBoeuf as an opportunity to combine their comfort working on large litigation cases. Reardon "is an extremely tenacious and hard-driving litigator," Vodola said.

While they each work in specialized areas that for the most part typically involve protecting the interests of insurance companies, the firm's model is what they call flat. "In other words," Vodola said, "we are involved in each other's work."

Reardon's claim to fame is a 1999 case involving a man who faked his own death and tried to collect a $7 million insurance policy. While at Dewey & LeBoeuf, Reardon led an investigative forensic fraud case on behalf of the insurer that revealed Madison Rutherford set up an elaborate ruse to collect the money. "He ran off to Mexico and we proved it," Reardon said. Because of strange circumstances of the lawsuit, which was resolved in his client's favor, Reardon was invited to appear on 60 Minutes.

In that interview, Reardon was asked to describe how Rutherford went about faking his death. "Our understanding is he drove from the hotel that he was staying in Monterrey to the side of the road in Mexico," Reardon said on the show. "He took gasoline with him. He doused the vehicle in gasoline. And he rode away in a bicycle."

Other similar cases of fraudulent death claims have sent him to Israel and Europe.

Subscribe to The Connecticut Law Tribune

You must be signed in to comment on an article

Sign In or Subscribe
">

Bits Blog: Like Apple, Google Now Has Devices That Come in Three Sizes

From top: the Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10.

With the addition of the iPad Mini, Apple offers touch-screen devices in three different sizes. Now its competitor Google is doing the same, introducing a 10-inch tablet, an upgraded seven-inch tablet and a new smartphone.

Introduced Monday, the Nexus 10, which Google developed with Samsung, is the company’s first tablet that competes directly with Apple’s 9.7-inch iPad. Most significantly, it undercuts the iPad’s price: a Nexus 10 with Wi-Fi and 16 gigabytes of storage costs $400, compared with $500 for an equivalent iPad. Google did not say whether a model with cellular data would be available.

Google’s Nexus 4 smartphone, which it developed with LG, has a 4.7-inch screen and wireless charging capability. Google highlighted its new camera software, called Photo Sphere, which allows a user to snap a picture up and down in different directions and stitch them together into a 360-degree view. (For comparison, the iPhone 5 has a four-inch screen and camera software that allows creation of a panoramic photo by panning left or right.) The phone starts at $200 with a T-Mobile contract, or $300 unlocked, without a contract.

Google also upgraded its Nexus 7 tablet, which was introduced this year, to include a cellular data connection called HSPA+, which is the predecessor to the newest cell technology, 4G LTE. The model with HSPA+ and 32 gigabytes of storage costs $300, and it is compatible with AT&T’s network.

All the devices include Google’s latest Android software, 4.2 Jelly Bean. Among its features, Jelly Bean includes Google Now, a personal assistant that keeps track of searches to do things like display the score of a favorite sports team, or provide updates on the status of an airline flight.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 29, 2012

An earlier version of this post misidentified the company that Google worked with to create the Nexus 10. It was Samsung, not LG. Thanks to commenter Joie2 for spotting the error.