Cablevision, News Corp. Still Annoying Customers With Dispute

Cablevision and News Corp. are still feuding over transmission fees, a situation that has left millions of Cablevision customers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania without Fox programming, like, oh, football games, the ALDS baseball games, Glee, House, The O'Reilly Factor and Good Day, New York since October 16. And given the current tenor of "negotiations," it seems that these lowly customers may miss the World Series. Well, unless they decide to (illegally) watch Fox programs online—the media company claims that when a Fox employee with Cablevision service called Cablevision, the Cablevision rep told them which websites streamed Fox shows!

According to the Daily News, the Fox employee taped his conversation:

"Is there anyplace I can get these games?" the Long Island-based customer asks.

The rep first suggests the customer try adjusting his HD set, which would allow him to legally get the Fox signal over the air.

The rep then goes on to give out two websites where the customer might find the events. The sites do not have the right to broadcast games.

"You can watch them online," the rep says. "You know about that?"

"They pretty much have all the games," he says, repeating the site URL. "This is one I got in an email from here.

"Thank God for the Internet, right?" the rep says.

Asked by the caller where the sites came from, the rep says: "We have millions of people calling about these channels. We have a team that's like online trying to find things online for free. So they send us these emails."

Cablevision EVP of communications Charles Schueler said “The FCC filing clearly demonstrates that News Corp. has acted in bad faith and outlines the FCC’s authority to order binding arbitration and immediately end the Fox blackout of Cablevision customers. News Corp. never engaged in real negotiations, they only made a 'take it or leave it' proposal for Fox 5, and they timed the Fox blackout to leverage major national sporting events to force Cablevision to accept unreasonable demands."

However, News Corp. said, "From the genesis of our talks with Cablevision, Fox has negotiated in good faith. We have never made any ‘take it or leave it’ demands, nor are we asking for $150 million in fees. For Cablevision to still be making those claims is yet another example of their ploy to secure an advantage through government intervention." MediaDecoder also reports, "News Corporation’s charge that in a personal meeting, the Cablevision president, James Dolan, made clear to the News Corporation president, Chase Carey, that 'Cablevision’s preferred path was to continue to seek political or regulatory relief,' rather than a negotiated settlement."

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

By Jen Chung in News on October 26, 2010 9:11 AM

Comments [rss]

cmdrogogov

oh noes. maybe people might be forced to go and read real news instead of the hateful tripe faux puts out.

Atomische

I don't know which is worse -- the cablevision-whining-channel or fox itself. I would not miss fox if it would be dropped altogether.

Newt

Solution: $10 antenna. $40 if you want HD and amplified signal. I have this one and it works beautifully: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/RCA+-+Amplified+Indoor+Off-Air+HDTV+Antenna/8280843.p?id=1171058630563&skuId=8280843&st=antenna&cp=1&lp=21

Automocar

Um, no. Buy this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/RCA+-+Indoor+Off-Air+HDTV+Antenna/8280834.p?id=1171058630499&skuId=8280834

Intangible

if your signal is weak then you might need an amplified antennae but otherwise buy the $10 one. My television has a signal meter and pretty much everything over 65% is good to go.

Gothamist_Cynic

Um it's only $10 if you want HD. Don't buy from Best Buy.

Sketto

I just love it when corporate behemoths, both maneuvering to get even bigger piles of money, accuse each other of hurting "the people". Am I really supposed to give a rat's ass which monopoly gets to take my money?

random transplant

Does Fox really think they can just threaten to litigate away the competition?

The cost of their programs did not double. They bring this upon themselves.

I hope MLB & NFL get their heads outta their butts and award their cable contracts to a better-suited company. They're loosing millions in add viewership.

jrrrrz

hopefully in the meantime they are both losing money, FOX from reduced viewership, cablevision from losing subscribers.

That is actually how these things should be settled, not with government intervention.

Intangible

nobody should be missing football or world series!!! plug in your bunny ears! I have a $1000 television broadcasting 1080i with bunny ears from 1970. This story should be about not getting fox CABLE channels like fx and foxnews.

jibbly

The only annoyance with the antenna route is that there's no good place to put them since TVs don't come with little bunny ear slots anymore. I guess we can revert back to the old way where one sibling holds the antenna until the commercial break (don't move, you're ruining the reception!) and switches off with the next. Ah, the annoying shit that kids these days will never experience just to watch some damn TV.

Automocar

Any $10 antenna sold nowadays comes with a stand.

The picture is better, too. Cable compresses the channels all to hell.

If I was a Cablevision customer, I'd be running out to Radio Shack and then calling to cancel my cable subscription.