Time Warner Cable represents the party to blame in its dispute with CBS television, says Michael Morris, senior media analyst at Davenport & Co.

The two sides are in a dispute over how much Time Warner should pay CBS to provide the network to Time Warner customers. Time Warner dropped CBS from its service Friday in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and several other cities, affecting 3 million customers in total.

"We think that Time Warner Cable is really where the problem lies," Morris told Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview "I don’t want to sound like I'm taking sides here, but we believe this is about the consumer paying for a service, just like they would any service."

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When Time Warner customers pay their bill, they expect to have access to the same channels that they would from a Time Warner competitor, Morris says.

"Right now CBS is setting a price that they expect to receive for that, Time Warner Cable has declined the price, . . . and as such they don't have that portion of their service to provide to their customers," he said.

"We actually see this as a very simple negotiating process, and it's a question of whether or not the end consumer values CBS enough to say, I'm going to switch to an alternative provider in order to get that service."

Time Warner has offered to provide CBS on an a la carte basis, which means Time Warner customers would pay for CBS separately from their other channels. The network called that proposal a "sham."

Morris is skeptical himself. "I don't believe this is the right solution for CBS, and the reason is really the treatment of CBS as a unique product relative to other networks."

If Time Warner offered all their channels on an a la carte basis, sports networks like ESPN would be more expensive, Morris says.

If "each of those individual charges became very transparent to the consumer and they could pick and choose, then I would say that this would be a positive for CBS, because . . . CBS is currently underpaid relative to the amount of audience that consumes its product," Morris said.

"But if the proposal is for the consumer to continue to pay their existing bill at full price . . ., and now Time Warner wants to tack on an additional charge for CBS, I don't believe that's consistent with the way they've managed the rest of their business. And it's probably not the best solution for CBS."

If the standoff lasts until the NFL season begins next month, Time Warner subscribers in the affected areas would miss out on the football games broadcast by CBS.

If irritated fans switched from Time Warner to another TV service provider in response, that could have a major effect on negotiations, Morris says. "That can really impact the economics for Time Warner Cable and force them to reconsider their position."

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