TIME Warner will not sell pay-per-view movies on New Year’s Eve because of the Y2K bug threat.
New York City’s largest cable operator has opted to yank its pay-per-view service starting Friday at 11:30 p.m. through 6 a.m. Saturday — a 61/2-hour blackout.
The shutdown was necessitated when the cable system decided to re-assign the computer staff that normally monitors the pay-per-view system to focus on any potential Y2K problems that night, a company spokesman said.
“Pay-per-view movies and events will be canceled on Friday Dec. 31 from 11:30 p.m.,” says an automated message on Time Warner’s customer service line. “Our regular schedule will resume on Jan. 1.”
A similar message has been displayed on the cable operator’s six pay-per-view channels.
Typically, any of Time Warner’s 2 million subscribers can order pay-per-view movies and events by pressing select and enter on their remote control or calling the company’s automated customer service phone line.
“We’re ready for Y2K, and we’ve taken this very seriously,” he said. “If there are any problems, once we identify them we’ll fix them as quickly as possible.”
Time Warner’s pay-per-view team generally keep an eye on customer orders and makes sure that pay-per-view movies are up and working correctly, the spokesman said. “There’s a lot of labor-intensive work there,” he added.
Cablevision, the cable operator that serves parts of The Bronx, Long Island and New Jersey, says it has no plans to make programming changes due to Y2K fears.
Time Warner’s decision to yank its pay-per-view service on New Year’s Eve is unrelated to the company’s $400 million upgrade, sources said.
The upgrade, which is expected to offer subscribers just under 100 channels, called Metrochoice, is nearly done, according to the company’s website.
The project, which was started in the fall of 1997, is expected to be completed by the end of 2000.
Most of the work has consisted of changing over Time Warner’s older wires and replacing them with fiberoptic cables.
The upgrade will cost subscribers an additional $3.95 per month and consists of 11 new channels including: Animal Planet, BET on Jazz, Classic Sports Network, Turner Classic Movies, CNN/SI, Eye on People, Independent Film Channel, Ovation, Nick at Nite’s TV Land, WAM! and Crosswalks — plus HBO 2, Cinemax 2 and Starz!