As the most-watched television network, CBS ranks ahead of Comcast Corp.’s NBC, Walt Disney Co.’s ABC and 21st Century Fox Inc.’s Fox.

Time Warner Cable, based in New York, has encouraged customers to sign up with Aereo Inc. to watch CBS. Aereo is a startup service, backed by billionaire Barry Diller, that sells access to the broadcast networks online for $8 a month. Aereo, which pays no retransmission fees to broadcasters, is currently being sued by CBS.

When a channel is dropped from a pay-TV service, 7 percent of subscribers end up switching providers, while 16 percent watch the lost channel online, according to a survey from Parks Associates, a market-research firm based in Dallas. The survey, conducted in the third quarter of last year, looked at 2,500 households and asked residents what they did the last time they lost a channel in a fee dispute.

Retransmission fees have become a frequent sticking point in negotiations between pay-TV providers and broadcasters, which historically provided their signals for free.

From the article, "Blackout of CBS Enters Third Day After Negotiations Stall" by Alex Sherman and Edmund Lee.

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