Cablevision Takes Fox Gripe to FCC

BETHPAGE: Cablevision Systems Corp. has filed a response to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) "documenting bad faith negotiations by News Corp." in the talks to renew carriage of FOX and other networks.

The cable platform is urging the federal agency "to assert its authority to immediately restore the broadcast stations" and compel News Corp. to agree to binding arbitration. Should the dispute continue, Cablevision’s 3 million subscribers will be unable to watch FOX’s coverage of the World Series, which begins tomorrow. Cablevision claims that News Corp. is asking for $150 million to renew carriage of Fox5, My9 and several cable networks.

"The FCC filing clearly demonstrates that News Corp. has acted in bad faith and outlines the FCC’s authority to order binding arbitration and immediately end the Fox blackout of Cablevision customers," said Charles Schueler, Cablevision’s executive VP of communications. "News Corp. never engaged in real negotiations, they only made a ‘take it or leave it’ proposal for Fox 5, and they timed the Fox blackout to leverage major national sporting events to force Cablevision to accept unreasonable demands."

Cablevision maintains that News Corp. has refused to negotiate in good faith by demanding a "take it or leave it" rate for Fox 5; that it has "deliberately timed the deadline to black out Fox 5 and My9 to ensure that Cablevision customers would be denied access to major national sporting events"; and that it has "abused the power it has achieved through special "one of its kind" FCC waivers that allow it to own multiple government broadcast licenses and newspapers in the New York market."

Cablevision adds, "News Corp. is attempting to leverage its unprecedented government-enabled media consolidation to force Cablevision to accept unreasonable fee demands."