By a nearly 2-to-1 plurality, Americans approve of Time Warner Cable's decision to drop Current TV from its lineup after the news channel was acquired by Al Jazeera, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll found.
According to the new survey, 41 percent of Americans said they approve of Time Warner's decision, while 22 percent said they disapprove. Time Warner announced the decision to drop Current TV almost immediately after the Al Jazeera sale was made public, but then said it would consider carrying Al Jazeera America, which will be replacing Current TV.
Republicans in the survey approved of the Time Warner decision 65 percent to 13 percent, and independents backed it 42 percent to 22 percent. Democrats, however, divided equally between those approving (26 percent) and disapproving (27 percent). Older Americans were more likely than younger Americans to support the cable giant's decision.
Although many said they approve of the Time Warner move, few had heard much about the Current TV-Al Jazeera deal. Only 14 percent of Americans said they had heard a lot about the sale, 38 percent said they'd heard a little, and 41 percent said they'd heard nothing at all.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted Jan. 3-4 among 1,000 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points (though that inherent variation does not take into account other potential sources of error, including statistical bias in the sample). The poll used a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling.