News Corp and Cablevision Systems Corp plan to resume talks today after the media company cut its Fox broadcast signal to Cablevision’s 3 million customers in New York and Philadelphia in a dispute over program fees.
The two companies returned to the negotiating table in New York yesterday, according to spokesman for both companies, after reaching an impasse Friday night. The two sides plan to meet again today, the spokesmen said.
“No material progress was made and we remain far apart,” said Scott Grogin, a spokesman for Fox said in an e-mail.
The blackout affects WNYW Channel 5 and WWOR 9 in New York, WTXF 9 in Philadelphia, Fox Business, Nat Geo Wild and Fox Deportes. Cablevision customers will lose access to the New York Giants vs. Detroit Lions football game today and baseball’s playoffs if a settlement isn’t reached. News Corp urged Cablevision customers to switch to another pay-TV provider.
Cablevision said in a statement that Fox failed to negotiate in good faith and called the decision to remove the programming “a black eye for broadcast television in America.”
Broadcasters like Fox are trying to extract fees from pay- TV operators for signals that were once free. Pay-TV operators are resisting the charges, which are typically passed to the customer, arguing the channels are free over the public airwaves and on the Web. The dispute between Cablevision and News Corp doesn’t affect Fox News, FX and local sports channels.
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“I remain hopeful that these two companies will do what is in the best interest of consumers and find a way quickly to resolve their differences,” US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.
Cablevision, based in Bethpage, New York, said News Corp. wants more than $150 million a year in so-called retransmission fees for the Fox stations and some cable channels, up from $70 million a year it already pays the media company. Fox said it wants “fair compensation.”
“Fox is laser-focused on capturing significant retrans dollars and we see no reason why they would give in,” Rich Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG LLC, said in an October 15 note. The fact that Fox holds the rights to air local sports programming, like the Giants and New York Yankees games, gives them leverage over Cablevision, he said. This year, squabbles between channel owners and distributors over fees have led to the most TV blackouts in at least a decade.
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Fox, in a statement, rejected that approach, saying arbitration would “reward Cablevision for refusing to negotiate fairly,” and would “ensure that more unnecessary disputes arise in the future.” Fox said direct negotiation was the only way to resolve the issue. Cable-vision called on News Corp again yesterday to submit the dispute to a third party.
“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,” Charles Schueler, a spokesman for Cablevision, said yesterday.