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Cablevision subscribers: Just two months after facing the loss of HGTV and the Food Network, get ready to lose WABC-TV — the ABC affiliate in New York, just hours before the Oscars telecast is set to begin.
Cablevision’s contract with Disney-owned WABC-TV will expire March 7th, and both sides have not reached an agreement.
The dispute centers around retransmission rights fees. Currently, WABC permits Cablevision to carry its channel on their lineup for free. But now the station wants to be paid. WABC claims Cablevision earns $18 million a month from its broadcast basic lineup of mostly-local channels, and it’s time to share a portion of that with the station.
Cablevision has so far not agreed to the asking price.
“Cablevision’s position is that ABC7 is worth little to nothing to its business and its proposed offers have been consistently unreasonable and unrealistic,” said Rebecca Campbell, president and general manager of WABC-TV. “We think these shows are valuable, and your bill shows that Cablevision must agree since you already pay for ABC7 as part of your Broadcast Basic Tier – a service for which, as a Cablevision customer, you pay as much as $18 each month. Cablevision charges you for ABC7 and then keeps all the money.”
WABC has started a website to educate customers how to drop Cablevision and switch to a competitor such as Verizon FiOS, or get access to the station over-the-air.
Cablevision fired back accusing ABC of asking consumers to pay a TV tax amounting to $40 million that would have to be passed onto subscribers in another rate increase.
“It is not fair for ABC-Disney to hold Cablevision customers hostage by forcing them to pay what amounts to a new TV tax,” said Charles Schueler, Cablevision executive vice president.
Both sides indicate negotiations are continuing, and some compromise may still be reached before the deadline.
[flv width=”600″ height=”356″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WABC New York Cablevision viewers may lose Channel 7 on cable service 3-2-2010.flv[/flv]
WABC-TV is running this 30-second ad telling viewers about the dispute with Cablevision, along with stories on their newscasts. (4 minutes)
WABC operates over the public airwaves and Cablevision has carried them for years along with the Disney network family for $200 million annually. WABC’s revenue thus far has come from advertising dollars and now they threaten to yank their channel from CV unless they are paid an additional $40 million. That amounts to extortion and WABC can go stick it.. See how well cutting off 3 million households sits with WABC’s Advertisers and add to that the bad taste it leaves with those same 3 million households that they pull their broadcast from.. I for one have already changed my… Read more »