Title: Fox Stations Go Dark as Dispute With Cablevision Escalates Source:
mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com URL Source:http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.c ... x-dispute/?partner=rss&emc=rss Published:Oct 16, 2010 Author:BRIAN STELTER AND BILL CARTER Post Date:2010-10-16 09:11:47 by Itistoolate Keywords:None Views:212 Comments:12
Fox Stations Go Dark as Dispute With Cablevision Escalates
By BRIAN STELTER AND BILL CARTER
12:44 a.m. | Updated The clock struck midnight and Fox stations disappeared from homes subscribing to Cablevision as the dispute between the cable company and Fox’s owner, News Corporation, escalated into action early Saturday.
Instead of a scheduled episode of “The Simpsons,” WNYW Channel 5 in New York displayed nothing but a black screen. The same was the case on WOR, Channel 9, also owned by News Corp., which was supposed to be showing an episode of “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne.”
News Corp. quickly issued a release headlined, “Cablevision Drops Fox.” At the same time, Cablevision began posting a message on the screen that accused News Corp. of “pulling Fox 5 and My 9 off air” and declared it was News Corp.’s decision, “not ours.”
A voice-over announcer ran simultaneously on both stations (after a bizarre moment when Channel 9 began running audio from the ABC News Program “Nightline”) and read a long list of grievances against News Corp., accusing the company of “extortion,” “corporate greed” and “outrageous demands” as well as “holding their own viewers hostage.”
For its part News Corp. accused Cablevision of seeking “preferential treatment” that will force viewers to lose access to programs like Saturday night’s first game in the National League Championship Series and the Giants N.F.L. game on Sunday.
News Corp. also said Cablevision had declared an impasse at 8 p.m., and refused to negotiate further.
On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission proposed mediation in the dispute, warning of weekend disruptions to Fox broadcasts.
Cablevision said it had accepted the F.C.C. offer. Fox said it had declined. Lawmakers urged the companies to keep negotiating.
The two media giants have been locked in contentious negotiations over retransmission consent, which gives Cablevision the right to carry local Fox stations like WNYW.
The dispute affects about three million subscribers of Cablevision in the New York metropolitan area. The two companies have had months to negotiate, but they haven’t been able to agree on a price for carriage of local Fox stations.
The F.C.C. on Friday afternoon asked the two companies to extend negotiations into early next week, to get past the weekend’s sporting match-ups, according to three people with knowledge of the government’s proposal, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized by their employers to comment. Representatives of both News Corporation and Cablevision were invited to Washington for mediation.
In response to the assertion that the government could force the two companies to the bargaining table, Fox quoted the government’s own words in a 2007 case between Mediacom and Sinclair. In that case, the F.C.C. said it “does not have the authority to require the parties to submit to binding arbitration.” All the F.C.C. can do, it seems, is keep up the pressure on both parties.
A Fox spokesman said the company was “declining mediation and binding arbitration.”
“Cablevision needs to stop hiding behind a call for binding arbitration and negotiate in good faith,” Fox said in a statement, adding that it shares “the concern for protecting viewers’ access to programming.”
The Fox statement continued, “Direct business-to-business negotiation is the only way to resolve this issue, while also preserving the long-term stability of the broadcast system. We will continue to negotiate and are committed to putting all our resources towards reaching a fair resolution.”
After ABC programming was taken off of Cablevision’s systems for nearly a full day in March due to a similar fee fight, the F.C.C. chairman Julius Genachowski indicated that the agency was looking closely at the issue.
“Media companies have a right to engage in transactions and determine the terms of those transactions,” he said at a Senate committee hearing in March. “But the events of the last two or three months confirm that this a subject that should be looked at seriously,” with the goal of “a framework that works for consumers and is fair for the parties involved.”
Retransmission disputes routinely go to the wire, but rarely result in the loss of programming. Cablevision and News Corporation, though, have each played hardball in other recent disputes.
The prospect that Giants and World Series games would be interrupted has provoked comments from dozens of lawmakers urging the two companies to leave viewers out of the corporate squabble.
Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, said Fox should immediately reconsider the decision to decline mediation. It is “inexcusable that Fox would rather hold consumers hostage than engage in further negotiations,” he said in a statement.
Representative Steve Israel of Long Island said in a statement Friday evening, “I spoke to officials today at the F.C.C. and they confirmed they have offered to mediate arbitration and pledged to keep the heat on both parties to come to the table without disrupting service.”
He added, “I’m disappointed that both parties haven’t agreed to hold Giants fans harmless while negotiations continue.”
Greg Aiello, spokesman for the National Football League, said the league was aware of the dispute and is “monitoring it closely.”
But he said it was not an issue the N.F.L. itself would get involved in.
“We’re innocent bystanders,” Mr. Aiello said. “We hope they work it out.”
The second dumbest creature on the face of the earth is the one who cannot recognize its enemies. The most stupid of all is the one who will defend and collaborate with the very enemies that are destroying it and its own kind. -Ben Klassen
"If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between reform and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable." - Thomas Jefferson
Pulp Fiction character played by John Travolta. : )
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of." Edward Bernays, Father of Public Relations
Pulp Fiction character played by John Travolta. : )
I'm impressed...Clarice.
"If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between reform and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable." - Thomas Jefferson
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of." Edward Bernays, Father of Public Relations
Yeah, I suspect that powerful forces in the greater NYC area (which includes New Joysey and "The Quiet State, Connecticut") are hoping to skew Fox News' coverage, because it's going to get real ugly.
The FOX campaign to elect (? DCTD-Designated Crash Test Dummy) will hurt the feelings of powerful commies, the same people who kept the Kremlin supplied with funds and America's most important national security secrets. You know, the same people who make TVs go dark for eight minutes when the attack on The USS Liberty is aired during prime time.
Oh, and it'll probably offend black and colored folks too.
Obviously it can't be done as a blatant censorship move, hence this "dispute".
I've read three articles so far and I still don't know the details, and when I clicked the link on the original story it was;
"Page Not Found
We're sorry, the page you've requested does not exist at this address.
I did find this:
"If a deal is not reached between Fox and cable distributor Cablevision, local channels like WNYM 5 and WWOR 9 will go off the air for subscribers starting at midnight tonight. In an effort to stave off that eventuality, the FCC made the rare move today of stepping in and offering to help arbitrate, urging both sides to push the deadline into next week. Cablevision, which has been pushing for binding arbitration and has lined up more than two dozen local politicians behind the effort, accepted the FCC offer. Fox declined. "Cablevision needs to stop hiding behind a call for binding arbitration and negotiate in good faith," a spokesman told the Times. "Direct business-to-business negotiation is the only way to resolve this issue, while also preserving the long-term stability of the broadcast system." Meanwhile, Cablevision supporter Representative Steve Israel said today on WCBS radio: "I hope when people wake up on Saturday morning and if Fox is off their screens they'll remember that Cablevision agreed to binding arbitration and Fox did not. We need them to stop the brinksmanship."
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Well, gee, that sure explains what it's all about, doesn't it?
FOX ain't going for any "binding arbitration" and allow more of the same kinky haired commies they're fighting to shove their never ending Bolshevik agenda up their asses. FOX has their own agenda.
No matter which side prevails the truth is the casualty and the people will lose.