Viacom's argument is that their channels "provide 20 percent of their audience" yet they only "receive about 2.5 percent of the fees Time Warner pays," so they're asking for what amounts to a rate increase of 23 cents per subscriber. Time Warner says that "the root of this is that the advertising market has gone soft and Viacom is desperate" and it's no time to be making people pay more for TV.

Viacom's PR campaign, so far, is decidedly brilliant: They've taken out full page ads in the Times and other papers today with characters like Dora the Explorer crying because children can't watch her starting tomorrow. Time Warner's response is pretty savvy too. Time Warner spokesman Alexander Dudley said that they'll "be telling our customers exactly where they can go to see these programs online...We’ll also be telling them how they can hook up their PCs to a television set.”

That's right—the cable company will be telling people to use Hulu. That's a first. True, they're still doing it over Time Warner's pipes, but it's pretty shocking coming from a cable company/ISP, who, like every other TV/ISP service provider, has traditionally pushed people in various ways to use the internet less and their TV services more. In fact, Time Warner has squawked before that they hate the amount of content—like The Hills and The Daily Show, the very programs at issue here—that broadcasters are putting online for free. Now they're sending people to them.

This is also the same Time Warner that's capping the amount of data people can use a month in certain markets, which, survey says, is a network management practice likely to spread—in large part due to the amount of strain on broadband networks coming from streaming video now.

And this Time Warner's going to tell people to stream more video? Maybe they're just going to bump your broadband bill instead, or this is a bluff. So, don't worry guys, you'll totally be able to watch Comedy Central while you're hungover tomorrow. (Probably.) [NY Times via NewTeeVee]

You already know about all of the different ways to watch TV online. Now you just want links to your favorite shows (plus all those new ones) as quickly as possible so you can ditch your TiVo and TV once and for all. Our Internet TV remote has the best links to every prime-time show currently streaming online at full length. Bookmark it and check back often, we'll update it as new shows come out... Note: Many of these streams will not work outside of the US, but if you're out of the country and need your fix, you know where to go without any help from us.

NBC
30 Rock
America’s Toughest Jobs
The Biggest Loser
Chuck
ER
Friday Night Lights
Heroes
Kath & Kim
Knight Rider
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Life
Lipstick Jungle
My Name is Earl
The Office
Saturday Night Live
The Tonight Show

ABC
Boston Legal
Brothers & Sisters
Dancing With The Stars
Desperate Housewives
Dirty Sexy Money
Eli Stone
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Grey's Anatomy
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Life On Mars
Lost
Opportunity Knocks
Private Practice
Pushing Daisies
Samantha Who?
Ugly Betty

CBS
Big Brother
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Eleventh Hour
The Ex List
Gary Unmarried
How I Met Your Mother
Jericho
The Mentalist
NCIS
The New Adventures of Old Christine
Numb3rs
Survivor
The Unit
Worst Week

FOX
American Dad
America's Most Wanted
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
Bones
Cops
Do Not Disturb
Family Guy
Fringe
Hell's Kitchen
Hole in the Wall
House
Kitchen Nightmares
MADtv
The Moment of Truth
Prison Break
The Simpsons
TALKSHOW with Spike Feresten
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
til Death

The CW
4REAL
90210
America's Next Top Model
Easy Money
Everybody Hates Chris
The Game
Gossip Girl
In Harms Way
Privileged
One Tree Hill
Reaper
Smallville
Supernatural
Valentine

Comedy Central
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
South Park

MTV
The Hills
A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila
Cribs

FX
30 Days
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Nip Tuck
Rescue Me
The Riches
Sons of Anarchy

USA
Burn Notice
Dr. Steve-O
Monk
Psych
The Starter Wife

Sci-Fi
Battlestar Galactica
Destination Truth
Eureka
Ghost Hunters
Ghost Hunters International
Sanctuary
Scare Tactics

Apple Announces Hit Television Programming Now Available on the iTunes Store in Canada

Programs from Canada's Top Networks, US Favorites & NHL Now Available on iTunes

CUPERTINO, California—December 12, 2007—Apple® today announced that hit television programming from Canada's top networks, US broadcasters and the National Hockey League (NHL) is now available for CAN$1.99 per episode from the iTunes® Store in Canada (www.itunes.ca). iTunes customers can choose from Canadian-produced favorites such as the top-rated, award-winning "Corner Gas" from CTV, smash hit comedy "Little Mosque on the Prairie" from CBC, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning "South Park" from Comedy Central and the NHL Games of the Year.

"We're thrilled to bring television programming to the iTunes Store in Canada in time for the holiday season," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We're off to a great start with hit shows from CBC, CTV, Comedy Central and MTV Networks, along with the best of classic and current NHL action."

Television shows purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store can be viewed on a PC or Mac®, iPod® nano with video, fifth generation iPod, iPod classic or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV™. Television programming on the iTunes Store in Canada includes:

• CBC's comedy programs "Little Mosque on the Prairie" and "The Rick Mercer Report," reality programming "No Opportunity Wasted" and "Dragon's Den;" • CTV's smash hit comedy "Corner Gas," dramas "Instant Star," "Degrassi: The Next Generation" and "Robson Arms;" • Comedy Central's "Drawn Together," "The Sarah Silverman Program" and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning "South Park;" • MTV Networks programs "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "The Hills;" and • NHL Games of the Year, including top NHL games in their entirety for the 2007-2008 season, as well as Stanley Cup Classics, a five-game bundle of great Stanley Cup Final games.

With Apple's legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, seamless integration with iPod and the ability to turn previously purchased songs into completed albums at a reduced price, the iTunes Store is the best way for PC and Mac users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.

Pricing & Availability
iTunes 7 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from (www.itunes.ca). Purchase and download of songs and videos from the iTunes Store requires a valid credit card from a financial institution in the country of purchase. Television shows are available in the US, UK and Canada only, and video availability varies by country. Television shows are CAN$1.99 per episode in Canada. TV shows from the iTunes Store are downloaded in near-DVD quality at a resolution of 640x480 (up to 480, depending on the aspect ratio) and can be viewed on a PC or Mac, iPod nano with video, fifth generation iPod, iPod classic or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.

It's brilliant, really. Cutting shows into individual clips, Viacom probably feeds users more ads per content minute online than on television. [nytimes]

Porn Star's Voice on Comedy Central Mobile Video [picturephoning]

Virtually Yours

ESPN is synonymous with sports in America. And while the cable net has made some slight forays into the wireless space with a mobile version of its website and some games and applications, its Mobile ESPN service is looking to translate the SportsCenter experience onto a phone. Mobile ESPN is launching on a Sanyo handset that features a custom UI built around the data services that will deliver pretty much anything a sports junkie needs—live scores, news, video highlights and more.

But ESPN and other big brands don't want to take a backseat to mobile operators, and they certainly don't want to get into the business of buying spectrum and building out their own wireless networks. Their strengths are in content and marketing, not setting up and maintaining a cellular network. So they become a virtual operator—they buy airtime wholesale from a traditional carrier, then package it, market it and sell it however they want.

The idea of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) isn't anything new, with companies like Virgin Mobile or Tracfone having operated in the US for a few years. Typically MVNOs sell service with features and add-ons than you might get from your normal carriers, albeit at a lower price. But a new breed of MVNOs looks to change that, using incumbent carriers' new high-speed networks as the launching pad for an array of content and technology quite unlike anything previously available in the US.

ESPN's approach reflects that of many MVNOs: pick a niche and doggedly attack it. While this can be useful for general demographic groups, focusing on something like sports can be problematic, because while there are plenty of people that would love to have sports content on their phone, how many want just sports content and nothing else?

Another new-model MVNO launching soon is Amp'd, which is headed by the guy that started Nextel's youth-centric Boost brand. Amp'd is going after the 18- to 35-year-old market, leaning heavily on video content from partners like Comedy Central and Adult Swim, as well as viral-style videos and adult content. It's also developed a huge catalog of games as well as a music download service.

Amp'd, which plans to launch in November, is following an interesting strategy: look at what the traditional wireless operators are doing, then do the exact opposite. So things that people hate about their existing wireless carrier—devices with features removed, restrictive and expensive data plans, clunky user interfaces and so on—are gone. Statements like "We don't want to ask people to change the way they do things," reveal how diametrically opposed Amp'd and other MVNOs are to traditional carriers. "We don't have that telco mentality," says Amp'd chief marketing officer, Don McGuire. "We're an entertainment company."

Then there's SK-Earthlink, a joint venture between South Korea's leading wireless carrier, SK Telecom, and ISP upstart Earthlink. The basic idea here is to take SK's bleeding-edge technology from Korea and meld it with Earthlink's knowledge of the US market and its customer-service operations. SK-Earthlink, which should launch in the spring under a new brand name, is still remaining quiet about exactly what services it will have and handsets it will sell, but judging by the CDMA EV-DO handsets SK sells in Korea, it could make the gadget writer's often-used tagline—"you'll never see that here"—an endangered species. "We're going to offer access to technology that people may have been disappointed they couldn't get before," says SK-Earthlink's director of corporate communications, Julie Cordua. "We will deliver something this market has never seen before."

SK Earthlink, like the others, is also targeting a narrow niche: 18- to 30-year-olds that are willing to pay a premium for advanced handsets and data services. A traditional carrier simply couldn't take that narrow of a focus and remain a viable business. "It's hard for carriers to shift their brand," Cordua says. "Since we're starting from scratch, we can start something different."

The real potential impact of these latest MVNOs, though, isn't just their content and services as an end in themselves, but rather as disruptive forces to the wireless service business as a whole. While a lot can change between now and the time they launch, the MVNOs are saying all the right things in terms of the services and experiences they'll provide, reflecting the dissatisfaction many of us have with our wireless provider. Mobile ESPN, for example, put out a press release saying how great its customer service will be.

Most of these lessons aren't specific to the narrow target markets they've defined—while everybody might not be interested in baseball highlights videos, most people are interested in getting good service at a fair price, something traditional carriers still struggle to deliver. The content offering can always be reconfigured to address another niche, or even, perhaps, the mass market. But while it might be that flashy content that gets all the initial interest, it could be the way these companies treat their customers in delivering all these cool services that keeps them going, and causes the most problems for their physical-network rivals.

Carlo Longino is a writer and analyst that follows the mobile industry. He's co-editor of MobHappy, and also an analyst for Techdirt. He can be reached at carlo@mobhappy.com.

Read more Airtime. The column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.