The terms of the deal weren't disclosed — Viacom initially sought a 23 cent-per-subscriber boost, amounting to about $39 million — though the LAT confirms that the consumer-fueled, call-center fury influenced a swift resolution to keep SpongeBob SquarePants, South Park and Dora the Explorer on the air. The bad news: A new episode of The City airs Sunday night at 10. Call Viacom with your complaints this time around — it's only fair.

• Viacom, Time Warner Cable settle contract dispute [LAT]

Ensnared in a vicious battle over 23 cents per customer, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Daily Show, South Park and the rest of Viacom's cable offerings may vanish tonight for 13 million Time Warner subscribers.

When the ball drops at midnight in Times Square, so has Viacom pledged to yank the plug on 19 channels along the TWC system if the cable provider doesn't re-up its contract with a $35.9 million increase in its carriage fee. The bump amounts to 23 cents per Time Warner subscriber, which Viacom says is a long-overdue remedy to the carrier undervaluing its content.

We'll say! We've long considered Spike's mind-numbing cocktail of UFC tilts and Late Night Strip to be one of television's finest narcotic bargains, but TWC isn't convinced. Nevertheless, Team Redstone clearly intends to win its battle for your quarter, waving fierce numbers at the AP ("Americans spend a fifth of their TV time watching Viacom shows but its fees make up less than 2.5 percent of the Time Warner cable bill") and, according to the Wall Street Journal, launching a media campaign featuring a despondent SpongeBob and Dora the Explorer.

Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, CMT, TV Land and their knock-off subsidiaries would be looped into the strike, with each channel's respective Web site interrupting visitors today with a pop-up ad encouraging them to lobby TWC with an appeal. And why not? New Colbert episodes start next week, and really, who among us has the fortitude to miss the next installment of Bromance on Sunday? Oh. OK, well besides you..

• 'Colbert,' 'SpongeBob' may go dark on Time Warner [AP]

And while we can't and/or wouldn't argue any of these points, a ceremonious Warners rimjob also seems untimely. After all, what did Meyer do with his Speed Racer faxes on opening weekend? That and a few more pressing questions after the jump.

1. What about Speed Racer? Warners' legacy is one of adventurous flops and sturdy gambles, not messianic cultural events like TDK. If the point is a "content" state-of-the-union, then it's worth noting that the studio also dropped the summer's biggest bomb. For which, by the way, we love them; Where the Wild Things Are isn't likely to fare much better, but it is nice to know it's there.

2. What about Warner Independent and Picturehouse? The slimmed-down New Line earns a cursory mention, but its return to genre-junk roots is one of Time Warner's signature (and slightly desperate) content revisions since the AOL merger. And the axed Picturehouse — which had a strong summer of Mongol and Kit Kittredge after winning three Oscars in February — was all about "content" that's hit and missed just as regularly as the mother ship.

3. What about Get Smart? Again, the sturdy gamble is the thing: A hit that's grossed $200 million worldwide, will land equally hard on DVD and VOD and has sequels on the way. Screw TDK, really — Bewkes needs more like this, and he needs them recognized.

4. Did you know that Charlie Sheen makes $800,000 per episode of Two and a Half Men? A bit of rehash of an earlier question here at Defamer, we know, but a phenomenon we've come to now grudgingly accept knowing that T&HM is the flagship of a $4 billion television empire. Not that we get it; feel free to continue discussing below.

5. Whither questions and actual answers about new media revenues? Just because Tim Arango is writing all about Warners' precious "content" doesn't mean Bewkes can get away without answering his own query, "[T]he consumption of entertainment products is growing rapidly... The question is how do you offer it, and how do you get paid for it?" And this guy wonders why TW stock still hovers around $16. Come on, Jeff.

• Holy Cash Cow, Batman! Content Is Back [NYT]

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said Monday the media giant has "no agenda" regarding the acquisition of a television network, despite renewed speculation over a possible hook-up with NBC Universal.

"All of us are wondering what will happen to the networks," Bewkes said at a media conference in Gotham. As for NBC, "We'd have a look at that if and when it came up."

"If and when" Universal would be willing to part with their attractive NBC media-holdings portfolio—encompassing a wide array of gladiatorial and celebrity-trapeze entertainments, plus the talent-show-judging services of David Hasselhoff—we're all but certain a merger-hungry Time Warner will be there to swoop in with an extremely generous number, plus some sketched-out logo ideas for the newly rechristened NBC Time Warner Telemundo Television iVillage Bravo Studios. © Time Warner 2008. All Rights Reserved.

• Time Warner dispels NBC rumor [Variety]

Time Warner Cable Inc. was accused Thursday of lying to Los Angeles subscribers and providing shoddy customer service in a lawsuit that seeks potentially tens of millions of dollars in fines against the city's main provider of cable television.

"The company has broken multiple laws, and harmed countless Los Angeles consumers," City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said in a statement. The suit was filed as a civil law enforcement action and names the people of California as plaintiffs.

The suit also seeks $2,500 in penalties for each violation — and that would be doubled to $5,000 for each violation involving a senior citizen or disabled person, city attorney's spokesman Nick Velasquez said.

The total fine being sought would "conservatively" be in the tens of millions of dollars, he said.

We applaud these bold steps taken on behalf of consumers against corrupt cable monopolies, as we've for too long been the victims of a form of History Channel-robbing, porn-download-depriving rape. If anyone can right this wrong, it's our city's PR-friendly crusading D.A., Rocky Delgadillo. Now if you'll excuse us, we've been on hold with a Time Warner operator for the past 45 minutes, and we're wondering if that cable guy is going to ever show up in the guaranteed six-hour window. If you can read this post, it means the problem may have already been fixed.

• L.A. sues Time Warner Cable, claims shoddy service [usatoday.com]

THE EXECS ARE PACKING... In addition to Shaye and Lynne, production boss Toby Emmerich has one of the 600 jobs threatened by the New Line overhaul. New Line's indie label Picturehouse, fresh off hard-won Oscar victories for La Vie en Rose but stranded by HBO's recent divestment from the company, is on deathwatch as well; it will likely be absorbed by Warner's own boutique shingle Warner Independent.

... BUT THE HOBBIT IS SAFE! Sort of. Assuming Bewkes can square up with the J.R.R. Tolkien estate, which is suing for not only the $150 million it says its still owed from The Lord of the Rings franchise but also to reclaim film rights to other Tolkien work, the long-delayed, two-part Hobbit prequels will forge ahead for release in 2010 and 2011.

FEWER MOVIES, MORE BLOOD. Warner Bros. is expected to slash production by at least a third, maxing out around 20 releases per year. Harkening back to the label's early, sleazy John Waters/Wes Craven days, New Line will handle the low-budget horror and comedy portion of the slate. Expect less Be Kind Rewind, in other words, and more Semi-Pro.

BRETT RATNER IS SAD. The noted fauxteur, whose lowbrow excretions from Money Talks to the Rush Hour franchise puddled in the New Line supply chain for the last decade, told The Hollywood Reporter: "They are family, and it's like seeing your family fall apart. ... Bob [Shaye] is the guy who bought the first pencil for New Line Cinema." Alas, if only marketing $70 million studio releases was as easy as calling Staples.

INTERNATIONAL POTENTIAL. The Golden Compass was the most recent and most expensive example of New Line's practice of selling off foreign territories for upfront productions costs, costing the studio nearly 75 percent of the film's $330 million global box office. WB's international presence means it can keep those rights, though it's mostly too-little, too-late with New Line's output deals soon expiring and cheap genre films pledged for the future.

NIKKI FINKE GETS TO BE EXTRA-ANNOYING. Yet another foregone conclusion appearing on Deadline Hollywood Daily begins with Finke shouting "TOLDJA!", thus terminating Gary Busey's all-too-short reign as Scariest Hollywood Trendsetter.

• Tolkien Estate Sues New Line Cinema [AP]
• Bewkes Nukes New Line [Hollywood Reporter]
• New Line in Warner's Corner [Variety]
• TOLDJA! New Line Folds Into Warner Bros [Deadline Hollywood Daily]