Cablevision Subs Lose FOX

BETHPAGE: The more than 3 million New York-area households that subscribe to Cablevision lost access to Fox 5 and My9 this weekend after the platform was unable to clinch a new carriage deal with News Corporation.

Talks reportedly resumed today between the two companies. Cablevision is calling on News Corp. to immediately put the two stations back on Cablevision and submit to binding arbitration under a neutral third party to reach a fair agreement.

Charles Schueler, Cablevision’s executive VP of communications, said: "News Corp.’s decision to remove Fox programming from 3 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?"

On Friday, News Corp. rejected calls for arbitration with the cable platform, which maintains that it is being asked to pay more than $150 million to renew the carriage deal, up from $70 million. "News Corp. is continuing to demand more for Fox 5 than Cablevision pays all of the other broadcast stations combined," Cablevision said.