ABC, Cablevision Spar Over Retransmission Fees

BETHPAGE/NEW YORK: Cablevision subscribers may lose access to their local ABC station this weekend—ahead of the Oscars on Sunday night—over a dispute about retransmission carriage fees.

Charles Schueler, the executive VP of communications and community relations at the platform—which serves customers in New York and the surrounding areas—said in a statement last night: "It is shocking that in these difficult economic times, ABC Disney is threatening to remove WABC unless Cablevision and its customers pay $40 million in new fees for programming that it offers today for free, both over-the-air and online. It is not fair for ABC Disney to hold Cablevision customers hostage by forcing them to pay what amounts to a new TV tax.  We urge ABC Disney not to pull the plug and instead work with us to reach a fair agreement." 

Rebecca S. Campbell, president and general manager of WABC-TV, issued a statement shortly thereafter stating that it has been "trying for two years to get Cablevision to acknowledge the station’s value to their business. Despite our best efforts, it has now become clear that Cablevision has no intention of coming to a fair agreement. We can no longer sit back and allow Cablevision to use our shows for free while they continue to charge their customers for them.  We’ve worked too hard and invested too many millions of dollars in programming and community outreach, to be taken advantage of any longer—especially since our viewers can watch their favorite ABC7 shows free, over-the-air, or by switching to one of Cablevision’s competitors.”

The dispute follows a similar spat between Time Warner Cable and Fox earlier this year. The broadcast networks, hit with the decline in ad revenues, have been looking to retransmission fees as a key new revenue stream. If Cablevision and Disney-ABC are unable to reach a deal, the ABC signal could go dark at midnight on Saturday, ahead of the network’s broadcast of the Academy Awards on Sunday. Cablevision issued a new statement today in which Schueler noted that the company is already paying more than $200 million a year to Disney for its cable channels. The platform is calling on its customers to urge ABC to remain available while a deal is hammered out. It has created a Facebook group called "Cablevision Viewers Say: No New Fees, ABC!"