Sopranos finale no worry for Time Warner; Even Cramer thinks 'Fuggedaboudit!'

The media keeps talking about The Sopranos ending plus all of the wild predictions about who lives and who dies. There was a piece here Wednesday discussing that Bodog.com was hosting odds on the fate of Tony Soprano himself and the rest of crew. This has been discussed as something that could either potentially impact Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) because it owns HBO, and ultimately that it could impact Time Warber Cable (NYSE: TWC). Tying a major media conglomerate to one single show is like listening to the doomsday predictors: Maybe they'll be right one day, but they have been wrong every other time up to now.

Jim Cramer was just discussing this on CNBC a little while ago where he threw out the notion that The Sopranos coming to an end would put pressure on the company. He reminded us about how when The Sopranos went on a hiatus that it had no impact on real subscriber rates. Cramer further noted how Time Warner has been buying back stock and how well Parsons has been running the company. It should also be remembered that HBO has been a leader, and other cable and TV networks end up copying its success.

So you can go to Bodog to check the odds on Tony Soprano's ultimate fate, for entertainment only since U.S. citizens are crimped by Puritans making online gambling immoral and illegal. The betting money that has made it so far is giving Soprano himself a slim chance of survival, but if you believe in the "follow the money trail" you'd wonder why they would put a total and complete end to future "cameo episodes" or something of the like.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.