Viacom May Pull Shows From Time Warner

By Ryan Nakashima

LOS ANGELES -- "SpongeBob SquarePants" may be getting squeezed off of Time Warner Cable.

Media giant Viacom (VIA Quote) said its Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 16 other channels will go dark on Time Warner Cable (twx Quote) at 12:01 a.m. Thursday if a new carriage fee deal is not agreed upon by then.

The impasse over carriage fee hikes would mean "SpongeBob" and other popular shows like Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" and Stephen Colbert's "The Colbert Report" will be cut off to 13 million subscribers, said spokesman Alex Dudley, a vice president at Time Warner Cable. The nation's second-largest cable operator primarily serves customers in New York state, the Carolinas, Ohio, Southern California and Texas. ...