Cablevision makes new offer for Fox programming as World Series approaches

October 27th 2010

Cablevision Systems Corp. on Wednesday said it has offered to pay News Corp. the same rate it charges other cable companies for Fox broadcasts, in an effort to end a television blackout as the World Series is only hours from beginning.

"We agree to pay the rate Fox charges Time Warner Cable for carriage of WNYW-Fox 5 New York and WTXF-Fox 29 Philadelphia for a period of one year," Cablevision said, as 3 million households and our mutual viewers have been affected during the dispute.

The companies have been deadlocked in a fee dispute since News Corp. cut its Fox signal to Cablevision on October 16.

"This is higher than the rate we pay any other New York broadcast station," Cablevision said. "This solution is in the best interest of not only baseball fans but of all Cablevision customers and Fox viewers. We look forward to a positive response."

According to Cablevision, the company currently pays 70 million dollars per year for News Corp's programming (which includes channels such as FOX 5, My9, FOX Business Network, National Geographic Wild, and FOX Deportes). It went on to say that "they are asking for more than 150 million dollars for the exact same programming – no new programming, just another 80 million dollars per year for News Corp."

Charles Schueler, Cablevision's executive vice president of communications, said that Cablevision will continue to negotiate in "good faith," adding that as they try to reach a fair deal, "there has been absolutely no movement by Fox in their attempts to gain massive fee increases from Cablevision customers to carry broadcast signals that are free over the air."