The dispute between ABC and Cablevision continues as ABC prepares to pull the plug on Channel 7 for the Long Island cable company’s more than 3 million customers in the tri-state area before The Academy Awards air on Sunday, unless ABC is paid the $40 million the network says it is owed.
ABC announced Monday that it has set a deadline of midnight Saturday to reach an agreement. In the meantime, both companies have launched publicity campaigns in an attempt to lure viewers over to their respective sides.
advertisement
“Cablevision already pays ABC Disney more than $200 million a year for their programming, and now they want $40 million in new fees, a 20 percent increase, for exactly the same channels,” Cablevision said in a statement Wednesday. “ABC Disney should not put viewers in the middle and instead work with us to reach agreement.”
The Bethpage-based cable company argues they will have to charge customers more money for the same programming that is available to them now, for free from the air with an antenna, with a new TV or digital converter box or on the Internet. Cablevision pays ABC’s parent company, Walt Disney Co., to carry its cable channels, including ABC Family, Disney, and ESPN. But ABC says Cablevision charges customers $18 per month for basic broadcast signals, and does not pass on any payment to the network.
“They’ve actually pocketed that money,” said Rebecca Campbell, president and general manager of ABC’s New York affiliate. “If you add it all up—that $18 times 3 million subscribers per month for two years—that’s a billion dollars that they’ve been collecting on the broadcast tier and yet Channel 7 hasn’t received anything. There should be no reason why they charge the customer.”
She added that all of Cablevision’s offers have been “designed to be rejected” with the goal of blaming ABC for the breakdown in negotiations. ABCs previous contract with Cablevision expired more than two years ago, but the companies extended it month by month as talks continued.
The dispute is similar to the standoff at the end of last year between News Corp. and Time Warner Cable over how much Fox television station signals were worth. That tussle was resolved without a signal interruption but opened the door to other broadcast networks that say they can no longer afford not to be compensated from cable companies for their signal.
ABC set up a website to draw supports to its cause, www.saveabc7.com, while Cablevision is pleading its case on its website, www.cablevision.com/abc.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, wrote a letter Wednesday to the Federal Communications Commission, urging the agency to step in to ensure a resolution.
“These are private negotiations, but there’s a public interest at stake,” he wrote. “It’s resolution matters to the consumers who take hard earned money out of their wallets each month to pay their cable bills and shouldn’t become collateral damage in wars between executives.”
Cablevision recently came to an agreement with Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. in a similar fee dispute. Food Network and HGTV had abruptly gone dark on cable for about three weeks after negotiations broke down.
“You woke up one morning and the Food Network and HGTV weren’t there,” said Campbell. “No one knew about that ahead of time. We wanted to give our viewers options.”
“We’ve been giving [Cablevision] a month to month extension for over two years,” she said. “We remain open to reach a fair agreement with Cablevision—we’re waiting for them.”
With Timothy Bolger
