Entertainment is a competitive business and many times companies have to play dirty to stay on top. Such is the case with Time Warner Cable, who is said to be offering incentives to media producers in order to keep content offline. This can be a tricky situation, though, as incentives can also sometimes be classified as threats.

Sources tell Bloomberg that Time Warner Cable may offer higher payments to content providers willing to stay away from online video streaming. These anonymous tipsters also suggest that sometimes these “incentives” may come as threats to drop programming all together.

Right now we may be focusing on TWC, but this is a business strategy that is very common in the industry. Exclusives are here to stay, even if they may hurt competition and new digital experiences. Google TV benefits from both cable TV and online streaming, but I know many of you would prefer cutting the chord (some of you already have).

Cutting the chord will be very hard if these deals and exclusive contracts continue to be around. This happens to be rather depressing in an industry that is moving towards the internet more and more everyday. Technology is evolving but some businesses refuse to do the same. We guess those profits just have to keep coming, right?

[via Bloomberg]