Time Warner Cable Drops MSG's Fuse Network

6:11 AM PST 12/20/2011 by Georg Szalai

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Kevin Winter

The cable giant and MSG have been locked into carriage talks for sports networks, but now the music channel, on which Cee Lo Green hosts a talk show, has become a victim.

NEW YORK - Time Warner Cable has dropped Dolan family-controlled Madison Square Garden’s Fuse music network from its lineup in a broader battle over programming costs, the New York Post reported.

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The paper cited sources as saying that TWC paid 8 cents per subscriber per month for Fuse, whose shows include talk show Talking With Strangers with host Cee Lo Green.

MSG and TWC have been locked into talks about carriage fees for sports networks MSG and MSG Plus, which carry games of the MSG's New York Knicks and New York Rangers basketball and hockey teams.

The dispute leaves Fuse without 7.8 million subscribers, according to the Post. It is the second time that the channel has been dropped by a pay TV giant in the past 12 months after satellite TV firm Dish Network did the same.

TWC did not comment on whether it would start carrying Fuse again if the two companies manage to settle the MSG carriage dispute, according to the Post.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai