News Corp Pulls Its Channels From Cablevision Subscribers (Update: And Hulu Access)

by Frances Martel | 3:09 pm, October 16th, 2010

» 14 comments

The rift between Cablevision and News Corp continues as the latter has now pulled the plug on the local New York Fox affiliates, Fox 5 and My9, which it owns. They are now also threatening to pull several other channels under their power, though the larger channels like Fox News are as yet unaffected. If they don’t settle today, however, subscribers will miss the first game of baseball’s National League Championship Series.

According to the AP, both parties resumed talks this afternoon and are anxious to come to an agreement.

“As long as there is a serious effort on the part of Cablevision, we will be at the table,” Fox spokesman Scott Grogin said. “We want to settle this as quickly as possible.”

Fox channels went black for Cablevision customers early Saturday shortly after midnight, when the both parties’ programming deal expired. Such deals spell out how much a cable TV system pays the broadcaster to carry its signals over the cable lineup.

Meanwhile, Cablevision representatives sent out a press release hoping for a speedy agreement and denouncing News Corp for not agreeing to binding arbitration, which would have more quickly solved the problem through the introduction of a third party and was the preferred solution for twenty-seven elected officials from the area. Cablevision agreed to settle the dispute through this means, but because News Corp refused the offer, negotiations are still ongoing.

Update: News Corp has also banned Cablevision subscribers from viewing its content on Hulu.com.

The full Cablevision press release below:

At midnight on October 16, News Corp. pulled the plug on Cablevision customers, blacking out Fox 5 and My9 in more than 3 million NY-area households. Cablevision is calling on News Corp. to immediately put Fox 5 and My9 back on Cablevision and submit to binding arbitration under a neutral third party to reach a fair agreement.

Charles Schueler, Cablevision’s executive vice president of communications, said:

“News Corp.’s decision to remove Fox programming from three million Cablevision households is a black eye for broadcast television in America. News Corp has refused to negotiate in good faith and rejected calls from dozens of political leaders to not pull the plug and join Cablevision in binding arbitration. We demand that News Corp. put the viewers ahead of its own greed and immediately restore these channels to our customers and agree to binding arbitration to reach a fair agreement. What is News Corp. afraid of?”

News Corp.’s pattern of destructive tactics has become clear. First, they terrorized Time Warner Cable customers for weeks; then they pulled regional sports and cable channels off Dish Network; and now they have pulled the plug on Fox 5 and My9 for 3 million Cablevision households. Further, they are now threatening to pull their broadcast stations away from Dish Network’s 14 million customers in two weeks. It is clear that News Corp. will pull the plug on any viewer, served by any cable, satellite or phone company, to get the money they want.

On Friday, News Corp. even flatly rejected the FCC’s call for independent mediation. More than 100 political leaders called upon Cablevision and News Corp. to keep the channels on while they continued to negotiate, and 36 elected officials called upon Cablevision and News Corp. to submit to binding arbitration, to ensure no disruption of programming for customers. Cablevision agreed, but News Corp. rejected this fair approach.

Cablevision already pays News Corp. more than $70 million a year for its channels, and News Corp. is demanding more than $150 million a year for the same exact programming. Cablevision has reached agreements with every other major broadcast station in the market – NBC, ABC, CBS and Univision – and offered News Corp. as much or more for Fox 5 as it pays any of those stations. But News Corp. is continuing to demand more for Fox 5 than Cablevision pays all of the other broadcast stations combined.

Cablevision is employing a variety of direct-to-consumer tactics to alert customers to News Corp.’s decision to pull Fox 5 and My9 off its system. Cablevision customers should urge News Corp. to return the channels immediately by calling 1-877-NO-TV-TAX, visiting www.cablevision.com/fox, joining its Facebook group “Cablevision Viewers Say: No New Fox Fees” or following on Twitter @No_New_Fox_Fees.

binding arbitration, Cablevision, fox, New York, News Corp., TV

puck30

Let’s see. quite a few years ago Cablevision had a problem with The Yankees & ‘The Yes Network’.

A year or two ago they had a problem with The Food Network & somebody else.

Now they have a problem with FOX5 & MY9.

We are talking the Dolans here, when was the last time the Knicks & The Rangers won anything big?
cmdrgmh

No Big Deal. Just hook up an antenna.
Moderate

What happened to letting customer demand set the price. I demanded Fox Business in HD from my cable company and got it. I did not request MSNBC in HD and it is not available.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Kris-Tomi/100001107916637 Kris Tomi

Local reaction ranged from indifference to indignation and disgust, even at this jockey business at the expense of cable subscribers. “It will not affect us much as we have cable, DirecTV and a sport package, so we will have access regardless,” said a bartender on duty at Seagrape Cafe in Fairfield. “We also have more fans Yankees and the fans of college football today, so there is little interest in the NLC. “ Cablevision Fox
http://usspost.com/cablevision-fox-20058/
http://Race4Congress.com Magister

I don’t have Cablevision, so I’m not affected, but I don’t think restricting Hulu access is a wise move.

First of all, the majority of people wouldn’t make the connection. I assume there’s some kind of notice or something, but the internet is supposed to be free and News’ willingness to use Hulu as a weapon doesn’t speak well for “net neutrality”, a concept that should be important to Hulu.

I mean, what if the Comcast/NBCU merger were to occur? Would other cable companies involved in disputes with Hulu’s owners restrict or throttle access as a negotiating tool? Will Comcast customers always have access, even if they’re at odds with News? What does this say about Hulu’s independence or whether Comcast will give preference to their subscribers.

ETA: Okay, I see now that despite the headlines on All Things D and MediaGrazer, they really only restricted access to Fox programming on Hulu, not the whole site — I should learn to click before I retweet — and they’ve now turned it back on. Perhaps that’s because someone considered the larger issues of such a move.
http://Race4Congress.com Magister

Curiosity question because I don’t know, but during the time that News was restricting access to Hulu were they also cutting off access to fox.com, foxnews.com or any of their individual network properties? And, I don’t know how Netflix’s on-demand works, but Amazon’s, iTunes’ and Blockbusters’ are also net-distributed, so was 20th Century-Fox’s content also restricted on those platforms or was it just a Hulu thing?
http://Race4Congress.com Magister

Uh… *mediagazer*, not grazer… my bad.
newzmaker

I’ve had it with Murdoch and his greed. First, he begins to charge for some of his online News Corp. material. Then, he goes after Google. Now this. Australia should be the one putting up with him. I want him to move. Ailes should buy FNC from Murdoch and get the old man out of the picture.
baby gerald

puck30 said:
Let’s see. quite a few years ago Cablevision had a problem with The Yankees & ‘The Yes Network’.

A year or two ago they had a problem with The Food Network & somebody else.

Now they have a problem with FOX5 & MY9.

We are talking the Dolans here, when was the last time the Knicks & The Rangers won anything big?

Word. I’m a Dish Network customer and they yanked MSG and MSG+ for the same reason. The Dolans are a greedy crew with Knicks and Rangers teams that haven’t won anything in a decade plus, but the folks at Dish are equally bad for being notoriously cheap and stubborn. Dish still doesn’t carry the YES Network because of a huge standoff with the Steinbrenners when that channel first appeared. I live in NYC but can’t watch 98% of the Yankee games because of this.

On top of this, Dish pulled FX, Fox Sports, and National Geographic as well, only this time it’s Fox that’s demanding the rate increase. And the same thing that Cablevision subscribers are going through now awaits me in November as those same channels come up for contract renewal with the cheapskates at Dish.

Whatever happened to the idea of ala carte pricing? You can’t tell me they don’t have the technology to make this possible. I’d gladly trade all my home shopping channels for MSG and all my religious channels and foreign language channels for FX.
bealzebubba

That debacle with Fox and DIsh is the the primary reason I’ve not switched to Dish from my cable service.

Broadcast TV needs to get it’s act together…more people are going to start dropping their cable/SAT services for IPTV and similar services. Only matter of time.
http://Race4Congress.com Magister

baby gerald said:
I’d gladly trade all my home shopping channels for MSG and all my religious channels and foreign language channels for FX.

Unfortunately, I don’t know about the religion and can only assume, but the home shopping channels pay to be on your cable or satellite system, not the other way around. After all, if they didn’t have a pipe streaming into your house, how would they get any orders? Their business model depends on the availability.
The Real Royal King

Murdoch is a well-renowned cheapskate. The viewers suffer. Target the culprit.
http://Mediaite.com uggugg

We need a special tax put on Broadcaster, to cool them down, if they didn’t have so much money, they would not try to rule the world. It would be much better to deal with them in court than on the battle field in 2020. Think about it. They are like my grandmother use to tell her daughters. People in high positions like a husband or business owner, all the time will have hard penis with soft head or soft penis with hard head. Money thinks like a penis. Think about it? I think old granny knew what she was talking about.
SharbeHeide

When is this matter going to be settled I want my channel back?