Cablevision subscribers shut out for game one of World Series
Cablevision viewers won't be able to watch the first game of the World Series on Wednesday, after Fox rejected the cable service's offer for retransmission fees.
The negotiation breakdown has cut off nearly 3 million viewers from Fox shows for 11 days and has sparked a debate over whether federal regulators should intervene in such disputes.
Fox parent company News Corp. said in a statement that Cablevision's offer was "incomplete" and "not acceptable." The broadcasters said Cablevision sought a discounted "package rate" that didn't include a full bundle of channels from Fox. But Fox was only willing to offer the full bundled package or a deal to take just WNYW FOX5, WTXF FOX29 and WWOR My9.
"Cablevision’s offer – sent to the press just as it was provided to us – is yet another in a long line of publicity stunts," Fox said.
Cablevision said in an earlier press release that it had come back to the negotiating table with a higher offer -- to take Fox shows at around the same rate being paid by Time Warner Cable.
“It is now clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that News Corp. is operating in bad faith," Cablevision said. "We call on the FCC to intervene immediately to restore the Fox signals to Cablevision’s 3 million homes and order News Corp. to agree to binding arbitration to resolve this conflict.”
Related stories of interest:
Pressure mounting for FCC to intervene in Cablevision and Fox fees dispute
Cablevision, Fox dispute ratchets up ahead of World Series
By
Cecilia Kang
| October 27, 2010; 4:30 PM ET
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Fox is a bunch of thieves. They are asking for a 50% raise, and no one gets a 50% raise these days. I think Cablevision should stop broadcasting ALL of Fox's shows now.
The only reason Fox is doing this now, is the world series. They think they can bully Cablevision with the World Series. Well, Cablevision should strike back and drop Fox News' various news networks until after the election, unless the Series gets on TV.
Murdoch is a creep.
(Let me tell you how I really feel.)
Posted by: kamdog | October 27, 2010 5:54 PM | Report abuse
Guess what? The world will survive. There IS a life beyond the sports pages. Watch a movie with your spouse. Play with your children. The results will be in the papers tomorrow.
Posted by: Ex-Fed | October 27, 2010 6:52 PM | Report abuse
Cyrano is amazed, because he watched the first World Series game this evening , at 8.00 p.m.
It was the SF Giants vs. the Texas Rangers. Why are you reporting that the games would not be televised????
Posted by: Cyrano | October 27, 2010 9:42 PM | Report abuse
Glenn Beck should get on a white horse and ride to the rescue of these people who are victims of corporate greed.
Posted by: esch | October 27, 2010 10:18 PM | Report abuse
It's pretty funny that Fox is trying to hold people hostage with a Texas versus San Fran world series.
Its probably the weakest series in a decade. It might have more power to make people angry if they shut it down in SF or Texas, but they're shutting it down in sections of the country where no one would watch anyway.
Cablevision, if they're smart, would simply break off talks with Fox for about 3 weeks. I wouldn't even take their phone calls.
Posted by: Ombudsman1 | October 27, 2010 10:19 PM | Report abuse
Good news for DirecTV, it would seem. They should gain a lot of new subscribers out of this.
Posted by: JoeRiley | October 27, 2010 10:31 PM | Report abuse
Good news for DirecTV, it would seem. They should gain a lot of new subscribers out of this.
Posted by: JoeRiley | October 27, 2010 10:32 PM | Report abuse
As a NY area Cablevision customer I received an email around 6:00 PM yesterday before the first World Series game. The email had a link to MLB.com where you could get the World Series for $9.95. And it said that if you provided proof to Cablevision that you had done that they would credit your account $10.00.
Can you guess who I see as the bad guys in this flap?
Posted by: frank_s3 | October 28, 2010 1:15 PM | Report abuse
As a NY area Cablevision customer I received an email around 6:00 PM yesterday before the first World Series game. The email had a link to MLB.com where you could get the World Series for $9.95. And it said that if you provided proof to Cablevision that you had done that they would credit your account $10.00.
Can you guess who I see as the bad guys in this flap?
Posted by: frank_s3 | October 28, 2010 1:16 PM | Report abuse
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