Utica, NY (WIBX) - On the heels of the press conference held earlier today in Utica by Mayor David Roefaro, Time Warner Cable is issuing their own response to the  matter that has many calling for a resolution to the dispute. Time Warner Cable spokesperson, Stephanie Salinger said people should keep in mind that it was Smith Media LLC, the company that owns WKTV, who pulled their programming from being carried by TWC. She said, "Two weeks ago now we made an offer during negotiations to them that we felt was a fair market value for the programming that they were requesting, and they walked away and said 'we're done we don't agree' and unfortunately we are at an impasse and we haven't been able to get them to re-engage with us since then."

She said soon after that, Smith Media pulled their programming because they own it. Salinger went onto say that, "We scrambled throughout the night of the 15th to get replacement programming up so that folks in the Mohawk Valley would at least have access to prime time programming and network programming that they love. Unfortunately, customers are being put in the middle of the negotiations of the results of WKTV and Smith, and actually their Boston venture capitalist, the  bankers that own Smith."

She said the best approach TWC found was to find replacement programming. Salinger also touched on the press conference held earlier today saying, "Franchise agreements are not exclusive to markets so that is up to the City of Utica to negotiate with other carriers so that's fully on their plate but franchise agreement have nothing to do with programming and they can't dictate what is carried and what isn't. I know the Mayor had talked about it in his news conference today, about talking to other providers, and that is up to his discretion but we know that we are acting in the best interest of our customers so that they are not continued to be held hostage to ever increasing programming fee demands by program broadcasters."

About the petition from Nexstar, Salinger said TWC is in full compliance with any obligatory notices to the station filing a petition to the FCC regarding their complaint that the company failed to notify them of the program changes. She said there is still an opportunity to come back to the table but at this point it's up to Smith Media, because they chose to end negotiations and pull the plug on their customers and advertisers.

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