Cablevision-Fox feud drags on, leaving Giants fans in the lurch

Hey, New York, are you ready for some football? Well, too bad.

Cablevision subscribers who want to see the New York Giants battle the Detroit Lions are scrambling to find alternatives to sitting on their couch as the dispute between the cable company and News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting continues to drag on and deprive consumers of key channels in the New York City region.

Fox pulled its signals from Cablevision Systems Corp. on Friday night after it was unable to reach a new deal with the distribution company for carriage of its New York City TV stations WNYW and WWOR and the Fox station WTXF Philadephia, which is carried in Cablevision homes in certain parts of New Jersey. There are also a handful of smaller Fox-owned cable networks (but not Fox News) caught up in the spat, but the big issue is deals for the stations.

Cablevision has more than 3 million subscribers, primarily in the New York City region, including Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and Westchester County. It also has subscribers in Connecticut and New Jersey, some of whom are missing the Philadelphia Eagles game.

Both sides have been in on-again, off-again negotiations over the last two days with little headway being made, and each continues to criticize the other. In the meantime, politicians are weighing in. Some are demanding that the two restore the channels while they continue to negotiate so consumers are not held hostage. Others counter that it is a business dispute that the government has no part in.

So far, the Federal Communications Commission has steered clear other than to encourage the two to restore the channels and work out a deal either through negotiations or third-party arbitration. There is even debate between the two companies as to whether the FCC has the right to intervene. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said he would introduce legislation to give the regulatory agency a role in these sorts of disputes.

Fox was heavily criticized by media activists on Saturday for blocking Cablevision subscribers who also got their Internet service from the cable operator from Fox-owned websites and Fox programming on Hulu, which is co-owned by Fox parent News Corp. Since the sites are not part of the dispute, Fox was seen as being vindictive. Soon after the backlash started, Fox indicated that the Internet service would be restored.

Blocking websites is "totally out of bounds in a dispute like this," said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a media watchdog group. "Consumers should not have their access to Web content threatened because a giant media company has a dispute over cable programming carriage."

-- Joe Flint

Related:

Fox signals removed from Cablevision Systems

Photo: Eli Manning of the New York Giants. Credit: Chris McGrath / Getty Images

 

 

 

Comments

[Joe Rodriguez]

As usual, the little guy suffers.

[Ted McCallion]

What you're doing to the NY Cablevision customers in unconscionable. From my perspective the amount of increase you are demanding is way, way out of line.

I think we will start a movement to have your broadcasting license revoked.

If the Yankees make the World Series this year again and you still haven't resoved your greed by then, I don't think you will believe the backlash which will come from angry New Yorkers. I will be one of them .......

[Gary Pranzo]

Easy solution.

Just hook up an Antenna to your TV.

a few years ago one of the cablevision guys asked why I still keep the giant antenna on my roof. Maybe I should invite him over to watch the Giants Game on FOX sith me now.

[DialloRafik Madison]

Please allow us to watch the football games, do not use the people as pawns in your bidding wars!!!

[Joe Cuccia]

I am out here in the Parsippany NJ area with an antenna unable to pull in the FOX signal. Being a Yankees/Giants fan and having to listen to today's football radio broadcast from the internet AND having to listen to the Yankees playoff game tomorrow at WCBS.com (game 3 will be on FOX5) I am more than annoyed.
Still, News Corp has left their News Channel on so they can continue to feed us the Far Right blitz in the run-up to election day. I would ask that Cablevision pull Fox News until News Corp gives us back our playoff games.

[Amit]

I am NEVER watching any FOX programming again, even when everything is restored. It was already a slap in the face to black out Game 1 of the NLCS baseball playoffs, but to black out Game 2 also reconfirmed the insult. Millions of us follow the baseball season all year to watch these final playoff battles, and to put the common people in between your multi-million dollar negotiations is disgusting. Even once restored, no matter what programming FOX delivers in attempts to entertain me in the future, I will never watch any of their channels or shows again. If FOX cannot respect the common consumer, I can easily find entertaining shows on different channels where I will be respected by the company.

[sammy]

could you put it back on .some of my favorate shows is on there

[sammy]

i realy need to watch the yankee game

[v]

The same in Dallas, TX with dish network, which affects some cable customers as well. No soccer games on Fox sports channel, and soon local Fox 4 may go off the air. They make internet more appealing.

[Ted]

It might be time for both the MLB and NFL to reconsider their involvement with Fox.

[Randy]

I don't blame Fox. I blame lack of competition. Consumers in big apartment or condo buildings often have no practical choices like residents of standalone homes. So these kind of disputes hit much harder in big urban areas like NYC which has a percent of such 'one provider or the highway' kind of situations.
What NEEDS to happen is for the city to take over the infrastructure- the cable or fiber optic lines, with a commitment to maintain them... then let the consumer decide who they want to buy service from... from an almost unlimited number of possibilities. It would REALLY open up the marketplace and take away the cutthroat hold that companies like Cablevision have. I'm stuck with the same thing with Comcast in an apartment in California. I hate the service (having been a former Direct TV subscriber when I lived in a house so I'm spoiled), but I now have no alternative, because the city gave Charter's corporate predecessor a monopoly way back in the 70's, as a trade for stringing all that cable. Okay, it's been 35 years or more.... isn't it about time to consider alternative means of delivery?
I'm also all for a-la-carte pricing- meaning I pay for individual channels I want, or better yet pay by the minute. But neither the cable companies *or* satellite companies* or content producers like Fox like that model, because they know they couldn't make as much off it. And truth be told, it would probably sink some of the 'little' channels who have only niche watchers.

[Randy]

By the way, I thought years ago when cities awarded a 'franchise' to a cable company, they made it a stipulation that local over-the-air channels be provided to everybody and not packaged.
So why does a provider like Fox get a fee for it? I thought they got their funding through selling advertising commercials. I thought only the true cable-only channels were fee-driven.
Did NYC and New Jersey slip up by giving in and taking out that franchise language?

[Andrew Masset]

Fox is doing all America a huge favor...The sooner people realize that this company is just a political mouthpiece for the Republiwants and they don't care about the paying public the sooner we will stop watching their programs and they will implode. Greed is a green eyed monster and they are obviously showing their colors. Bye bye...

[Sean]

Fox is doing the exact same thing to Dish Network subscribers, and all for some extra coin. What sucks is Fox knows they are holding the cards and they exploit the situation in the name of gouging their customers(Dish Network, Cablevision). Adolf Murdoch should be ashamed of himself.

[Ann]

Enough already. Some of my favorite shows are on Fox. However, I am sick of their greed. I am going to stop watching any Fox programming until the government steps up and starts regulating this industry. As consumers we have the power to change things if we are willing.

[linda]

Fox is asking for 3x the fees paid by the other networks (CBS NBC etc). We all know what happens when the other networks' contracts expire. Viewers are the big losers. I'll be at a bar tonight to see the Yankee game.

[Ken]

@Linda,Fer sure go to the bar and watch the Yankees.Just remember that the price of your 1st beer would probably pay the increase that Fox is asking for.

[mansterEZ1]

Why should the Faux Corp. negotiate in good faith? There are sooo many other options for consumers other than cable. Fox knows their position and is fully willing to exert even more control and influence. This is Capitalism, isn't it? Rules are made to be broken and manipulated to ones advantage. And the Republicants insist upon complete market deregulation because they can always solve their own problems. Consumers are nothing but a disposable chess piece to be manipulated at their whim. Oh, and Uncle Rupert is an immigrant who has no allegiance to anyone but himself and his business interests. If we were to revoke his citizenship there are many other countries willing to welcome him with open arms. For Ruppy there is no downside to controlling this ballgame.

[v]

All this sounds familiar. Isn't this the same issue every time football season starts? Different players, same story.

Is it true that ESPN is asking for 3 to 4 dollars for their channel(s) from providers?