News Corp Yanks Channels 5, 9 From Cablevision

From Cablevision's ad

At midnight, News Corp. pulled off WNYW 5 and WWOR 9—also known as channels 5 and 9—from Cablevision, leaving over 3 million people in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in the dark after being unable to come to terms with a contract. Actually, not the dark—Newsday reports that at 12:04 a.m., "screen appeared saying 'in these economic times, demanding $150 million dollars is unfair. Cablevision is willing to accept binding arbitration. We apologize for News Corp.'s action.' A voice-over blamed 'greed' on the Fox parent for pulling the stations." You can see the message here.

According to Cablevision, News Corp. is demanding higher fees for WNYW Fox 5, "higher" than the other broadcast networks combined, saying it pays $70 million for a total of 12 Fox channels, but now News Corp. wants $150 million. Additionally, Newsday explains, "Some industry observers speculated Friday that Fox is bound by a so-called
'most favored nations' clause in a recent pact with Time Warner, which forbids it from agreeing to lower fees from another cable operator. If it were to agree to those lower rates with Cablevision, then Time Warner would automatically get those lower rates - meaning potentially the loss of millions of dollars in retransmission fees to Fox. (Time Warner has roughly 13 million subscribers.)"

Cablevision has argued for binding arbitration (which many lawmakers support), but News Corp. fired back with a statement, "Cablevision needs to stop hiding behind a call for binding arbitration and negotiate in good faith," while saying it was concerned "for protecting viewers’ access to programming... Direct business-to-business negotiation is the only way to resolve this issue, while also preserving the long-term stability of the broadcast system. We will continue to negotiate and are committed to putting all our resources towards reaching a fair resolution.”

Earlier this year, Cablevision's and Disney's dispute over contract fees prompted the media company to pull its channels—including WABC 7, ESPN, Disney—from the cable provider.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on October 16, 2010 9:06 AM

Comments [rss]

philosophy

I'm an antenna/streaming/download person. Cable is a waste.

mistermarkdavis

I use an antenna from the 50's to get not just 5 and 9, and about a dozen other HD channels.

Dan

so use an antenna

silver

And nothing of value was lost.

silver

And nothing of value was lost.

Kojak

Exactly. The networks have far less leverage then they had years ago and are in NO position to pull such a stunt. Extra Cable/Satellite/FIOS channels will continue to cut into their viewership, perhaps at a higher rate now than before because of this.

And as was said, just get it over the air and your good.

Gothamist_Cynic

I'm glad I get free over the air HDTV.

Gothamist_Cynic

People who pay for basic TV are suckers.

JacqueMehoff

they really pulled the plug? at least, the yankees are shown on TBS and YES, that's all that matters right? oh yeah, they're going to miss the football.

bonu$baby

I'm glad I have every episode of Small Wonder on tape.

HairyG

The networks are screwing us, the consumers by gouging the cable companies for fees that we eventually end up paying for with increased rates. They do this knowing that we will look at the cable companies as the bad guys because they do not want to pay whatever the network demands. The network wants to more than double the fee for something that they broadcast over the air for free to anyone with an antenna. The networks are trying to screw us while making the service providers out to be the bad guys.

Yes, cable companies suck, but the networks are exploiting that at our expense, and we are buying into it.

Streetsmartz

Glad I have fios.

Spirit of 76

Ah, cable monopolies. Aren't they grand?

Then again, 5 and 9 (and 11) aren't the great stations they used to be 30 years ago, so no great loss.