NLCS broadcast in doubt for millions as Cablevision loses Fox.

Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

It’s time to dust off those TV antennas again for many baseball fans in the New York metro area — or hope the nearest electronics store has one left.

News Corp.’s Fox pulled its channels off Cablevision early Saturday after the companies’ programming deal expired and negotiations for a new one stalled, threatening broadcasts of the National League Championship Series for some 3 million Cablevision subscribers in parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Representatives from both companies said Saturday they were returning to the negotiating table at noon ET to try to resolve the dispute.

“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.”

The blackout affects Fox 5 and My9 of New York and Philadelphia’s Fox29. Subscribers also lose access to cable channels Fox Business Network, NatGeo Wild and Fox Deportes.

The channels went dark when the programming deal expired just after midnight Friday. Such deals spell out how much a cable TV system pays the broadcaster to carry its signals over the cable lineup.

The impasse means the subscribers could lose access to Game 1 of the NLCS, when the Phillies and Giants play on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET. The American League Championship Series between the Yankees and Texas Rangers, which began Friday, is airing on TBS and isn’t affected by the dispute.

Cablevision has called on News Corp. to put Fox5 and My9 back on Cablevision immediately and submit to binding arbitration under a neutral third party

“News Corp.’s decision to remove Fox programming from 3 million Cablevision households is a black eye for broadcast television in America,” Cablevision spokesman Charles Schueler said.

Fox released a statement blaming Cablevision for the impasse.

“In an effort to avoid this very situation, we started this process in May and made numerous reasonable proposals to Cablevision,” said Mike Hopkins, president of Fox Networks Affiliate Sales and Marketing. “However, we remain far apart and Cablevision has made it clear that they do not share our view regarding the value of Fox’s networks.”

In separate fee disputes this year, Cablevision customers have experienced brief blackouts of The Walt Disney Co.’s ABC broadcast signal and Scripps Networks Interactive Inc.’s Food Network and HGTV. Subscribers missed the first 15 minutes of the Oscars in the ABC dispute.

Cablevision Systems Corp. has said News Corp.’s Fox is making “outrageous fee demands” for the right to carry the signals of the three cable channels and three TV stations.

Cablevision says it pays $70 million a year for access to 12 Fox channels, including those in dispute, and that News Corp. is now asking for more than $150 million a year for the same programming. It said Thursday that it is willing to submit to binding arbitration and called on Fox not to pull the plug.

Fox rejected the call for arbitration, saying the process would “reward Cablevision for refusing to negotiate fairly.”

“Direct business-to-business negotiation is the only way to resolve this issue,” it said in a statement.

Things were slightly less urgent for hard-core New York fans like Bronx resident Clifford Taylor, who face possibly missing the New York Giants play the Detroit Lions on Sunday.

“We live for sports,” Taylor said. “Diehard New Yorker fans, we love to see the Yankees and Giants play.”

“I guess I’m gonna have to run to some local bar or something, to see if they get it,” fellow Giants fan Joe Figueroa said. “It’s all about the money. They’re always greedy.”

While Fox didn’t dispute Cablevision’s claims, it called Cablevision “hypocritical” because it pays more for two of its sister company channels, MSG and MSG Plus, than it does for all 12 Fox channels. MSG and MSG Plus are owned by Madison Square Garden Inc., which like Cablevision is controlled by the Dolan family.

Lawmakers have begun to speak up on the issue, including Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who called for arbitration so viewers wouldn’t have their TV programming disrupted.

Israel said in a statement Friday that he had asked the Federal Communications Commission to intervene in the dispute.

The FCC encouraged the two parties to agree to binding arbitration without suspending service and did not specify a mediator, according to Jack Pratt, a spokesman for the Long Island congressman.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., had urged both sides to extend negotiations.

“New Jersey consumers do not deserve to be treated as pawns in this dispute,” he said in a statement.

Rebecca Arbogast, a managing director at brokerage Stifel Nicolaus, said News Corp. and other broadcast company owners risk political intervention if they keep pushing carriage deals to the brink.

“The more that programming disputes escalate and signals get pulled … the more pressure we believe there will be on the [Federal Communications Commission] and Congress to do something to prevent such consumer disruptions,” she wrote in a research note Thursday.

In a separate dispute with satellite TV company Dish Network Corp., Fox cut access on Oct. 1 to 19 regional sports networks, FX and the National Geographic Channel for some 14.3 million Dish subscribers. That fight foreshadows more tough negotiations, as the deal for Fox broadcast signals on Dish expires Oct. 31.

For Shinequa Gaillard, of the Bronx, this isn’t the first time this has happened: Other Cablevision fee disputes earlier this year blacked out The Walt Disney Co.’s ABC broadcast signal and Scripps Networks Interactive Inc.’s Food Network and HGTV.

“I think neither one of the two are thinking about the customers and the viewers — neither one of them,” Gaillard said on her way to work in Manhattan on Saturday. “As consumers, what can we do? Nothing.”
-ESPN