The FOX network and Time Warner Cable are fighting out contracts publicly again and both sides have used call to action domain names and microsites to help gain supporters for each side during the fight! Time Warner came to the table with RollOverOrGetTough.com and it’s microsite that allows users to vote either Roll Over or Get Tough. Voting either way, get’s users to "sign up" and will be added to a emailing list for updates. The site is updated with Time Warner’s side of the story and updates related to the contract talks between the two sides.
FOX came out with the site KeepFoxOn.com which shows a countdown clock on the upper left side showing how many days until the programming will be pulled if a new contract is not met and several other features like a "Will I be affected" search box. FOX is using ammo like NFL games, American Idol, House and more of there popular programs that Time Warner Cable customers would no longer be able to see.
For me, this is not the first time this has happened with contract talks going public between FOX and Time Warner and the last time resulted in our local Fox channel being pulled for several days. Time Warner used a microsite at that time as well, TellTheTruthWLUK.com which I wrote about here and ran that domain name on it’s "Blank" screen during the outage.
Time Warner’s microsite has already been seen by over 400,000 people since it’s launch on November 25, 2009. Over 150,000 have left a comment, with 95% of those voting "Get Tough" according to Time Warner chairman, president and CEO Glenn Britt.
Although it’s never fun to see companies battle like this in the public eye, as it’s the paying customer who always seems to get the short end of the deal…. but it is nice to see both companies are using the power of the web and specific microsites to help them win the battle and keep customers informed on what is happening.
Time Warner used Godaddy.com as it’s domain name registrar and registered the domain name RollOverOrGetTough.com on 11-20-2009 and uses privacy protection.
Fox used NameCheap.com as it’s domain name registrar and registered the domain name KeepFoxOn.com on 10-6-2009 and also uses privacy protection.
Both have only registered the domain names for 1 year at time of posting.
David Beard
Tell Fox to go to hell; stick to your guns. If they’re hurting in the pocketbook, which is highly unlikely, it’s probably because they have overstepped the bounds of unbiased news coverage and become a loudspeaker the conservative element in our society. Hell, I can listen to “the” game on the radio.
David Beard
gloria
Keep Fox on, we’re paying for it we want it.
Chris
I used to work at NEWS CORP. Rupert Murdoch is a greedy and power hungry Australian. It is not fair that an Australia can have that much RIGHTS and POWER over our media ( newspapers, TV, cable, magazines). Not only does Rupert controls us, now he has American bickering amongst ourselves over FOX programming….smart move Rupert. What an instigator !I say remove FOX and let American gain back access and control of all forms of media. Rupert is a billionaire…he can afford to keep Americans battling forever.