Time Warner Cable television subscribers could be forgiven for getting a little nervous as negotiations dragged past the original deadline, but Time Warner and Disney have just announced a final deal.

Not only will all existing Disney channels (notably ESPN) remain in place, but Time Warner customers are also getting some new content, notably ESPN3.com and ESPN 3D.

Time Warner Cable has about two million subscribers in Texas (including both TV and broadband Internet service subscribers) and about 14 million nationwide.

ESPN3.com is Disney’s online sports network that broadcasts a growing array of live sports event over the Web. Notably, Time Warner broadband customers will now be able to get ESPN3 content on their Xbox 360 game consoles when that service goes live in the next several months (assuming you also have an Xbox 360).

Also of note: ESPN 3D is now coming to Time Warner’s video subscribers. Again, you have to own a 3-D capable TV and glasses, but if you do, now you’ll at least be able to watch something other than Monsters vs. Aliens for the 40th time.

There’s lots more in the news release, but the bottom line is that TWC customers can breather a sigh of relief.

Time Warner doesn’t say how much of a price increase it had to agree to in order to get the deal with Disney, nor how soon TW will start passing along that increase to its customers.

But the good news is that now, thanks to Apple and other tech companies, if those prices do get too hard to swallow, you do have options.

Victor Godinez/Reporter, Sept. 2, 2010

link to original post at http://techblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/09/time-warner-cabledisney-reach.html