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HERE WE GO AGAIN WITH CABLEVISION

R

RobertAnthony

This time customers of Cablevision could lose...ABC 7, WABC-TV


There is a website setup where people can demand to Cableivison that channel 7 remain on the line-up. Otherwise on March 7th, WABC-TV is gone. The reason...fees. Or as explained at this website, Save ABC7, in a statement by Rebecca S. Campbell, President & General Manager of WABC-TV...


For the past two years we have tried, without success, to reach an agreement with Cablevision to carry ABC7. Why? Because Cablevision's position is that ABC7 is worth little to nothing to its business and its proposed offers have been consistently unreasonable and unrealistic.

In fact, ABC7 delivers some of the most popular programming carried on Cablevision today, shows like LOST, Grey's Anatomy, Jeopardy, Dancing with the Stars, Wheel of Fortune, Desperate Housewives, General Hospital, Regis and Kelly, Modern Family, The Academy Awards, The Oprah Winfrey Show and Eyewitness News.

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.

What your bill doesn’t show is how much Cablevision pays us for these programs.

The answer: They Pay Nothing. That’s right...Cablevision charges you for ABC7 and then keeps ALL the money.
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For Cablevision of Connecticut customers, though there is a lifeline so to speak. The system also carries WTNH News Channel 8 in New Haven. But for those in New York and New Jersey, another matter.


Are there alternatives? OF COURSE. This type of stuff has gone on before with YES Network and most recent with the Food Network and HGTV/Scripps.


ABC7 is available to you through a variety of other providers, including Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse and DIRECTV, and, as always, FREE over-the-air.
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We have a family friend who has AT&T UVerse.
 
I'm not trying to be insensitve and I don't know of your receptions issues, since nobody seems to have a house that they can put an antenna on in New York, but why don't you just dump the cable and get yourself a decent antenna. Believe it or not television has been free since the late 40's. New York had free television since 1939. I haven't paid for television for years. The last time I checked the TV guide there was over 100 channels of crap on cable. Why should I pay for 100 channels of crap on cable when I can get my crap for free with an antenna. In New York you have televisions out the wazoo over the the air. You get more stations, including subchannels for free than what most people used to get on cable a few years ago.
 
Well, where I live I can also watch ABC programming on WTNH so WABC and Cablevision can fight all they want.
 
I wonder if WLNY's signal will be blacked out on Cablevision from showing shows that WABC does, for the duration of the WABC blackout, should there be one. Remember, they air shows like "Oprah," "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" hours after WABC show them.
 
flytrap said:
I'm not trying to be insensitve and I don't know of your receptions issues, since nobody seems to have a house that they can put an antenna on in New York, but why don't you just dump the cable and get yourself a decent antenna.
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With big cities like NYC the building are a disaster for getting DTV. I live in Chicago only 3 miles NW of Willis (Sears) Tower where the transmitters are and I get NO digital TV stations. I had to get cable. The buildings and density are horrible for receiving digital signals.
 
I wonder if Cablevision could strike a deal with WTNH to carry their programming in NY and NJ while the feud with WABC is going on. I'm sure they would appreciate the extra viewers for a few days, especially during the Oscars.
 
A novel idea, but not likely. If Cablevision is encouraging folks not to support ABC, why would they then turn around and carry a nearby affiliate for ABC programming?

Meanwhile, here is how WABC proceeded to cut their signal from Cablevision - but not before running into a few snags first:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kSJ1EjXDhk
 
I wish those customers were allowed to receive WTNH-DT (ABC) channel 8 (digital 10) from New Haven, so they could at least see the Academy Awards. LIN Broadcasting owns WTNH, not Disney.
 
ABC pulled the plug, and the reason Cablevision viewers can't see ABC is because ABC doesn't want them to. They're using a broadcast station - and by extension, their viewers - as a bargaining chip in cable negotiations, and IMHO, something about that stinks to high heaven.
 
Cablevision said they are not willing to pay an additional $42,000,0000.00 and, frankly, I don't blame them. There are already all manner of hitches with deals you get from cable companies. Why bail ABC out if you don't have to? I have watched ABC once in I can't even tell you how long. They seem to think more highly of themselves than they ought to.
 
WABC will pay for this with much lower ratings starting with the Oscars. Advertisers will pull their ads because they aren't getting the audience they paid for.

Radio Shack must be loving the increase in antenna sales. I wonder how many people will return their antennas after this is resolved.
 
I'm pretty sure LIN's affiliation deal with ABC includes some sort of clause (as would any affiliation deal these days) prohibiting LIN from offering ABC programming to cable systems outside WTNH's DMA. Cable companies can't just pick and choose which out-of-market stations to carry the way they could back in the fifties, sixties and seventies. Out-of-market cable systems that carried WTNH (or WNHC-TV back then) before the current rules took force in the eighties could be grandfathered in to continue carrying WTNH, but I don't think there are many of those anymore. How long has it been since any Long Island system carried WNHC/WTNH?
 
Nick said:
WABC will pay for this with much lower ratings starting with the Oscars. Advertisers will pull their ads because they aren't getting the audience they paid for.
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I wonder how many sponsors made that call with the condition "however, if you give ABC back to cablevision never mind. No harm no foul, it's your call."

I wonder if it's the same Disney genius who thought "The Disney Channel" can be a premium service like HBO. Dozens of free preview weekends later ... :D ;)
 
WPVI is also affected by this. Their signal has been pulled in Mercer. Don't know about the other cable vision counties that carry WPVI's signal
 
You know, not that I want to defend Cablevision (or Cheapcast/Time Warner Cable, for that matter) but too many media companies have this attitude that they can use the cable companies as some sort of piggy bank, always to be picked on whenever they have the desire to. At some point, the economics are going to change. The cable companies won't be able to print money forever, just as the broadcasters are finding out today.

What must happen is that big media companies will have to get used to a world where they can no longer expect mega profits. When IPTV or some similar technology really takes off then ordinary people would be able to bypass standard firewalls to watching any channel they want. The media companies are trying to delay the inevitable by laying off engineers, support staff and average stiffs working the cameras but, sooner or later, they're gonna have to look seriously at the high salaries they're paying to people who do nothing much but try to look good on the screen. It is always the same people who are overpaid and spoiled. You know who they are. I don't need to name them.
 
Update: Disney and Cablevision reached an agreement in principle, right before the Academy Awards got underway:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/business/media/08scramble.html

I should mention that on Sunday, Cablevision was offering subscribers the opportunity to purchase movies from their on demand library at no cost.

And when I saw the Cablevision Channel Guide on Sunday, when the two sides were still in disagreement, the scrolling channel listings went straight from channel 6 (WXTV) to channel 9 (WWOR). For some reason, there is no channel 8 on Cablevision's system (at least in The Bronx/Brooklyn).
 
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