As we mentioned earlier tonight, Fox and Cablevision failed to hash out an agreement in time for Game 1 of the National League Championship Series affecting a small amount of subscribers in Delaware County. The real test is on Sunday in New York and Long Island where Cablevision has a huge subscriber base of 3 million homes. Fox has the Detroit Lions-New York Giants game scheduled at 1 p.m. and if the game is not on, there will be angry calls to the Cablevision switchboard.
Brian Stelter of the New York Times writes that the two sides met on Saturday and are far apart on an agreement.
At midnight Saturday, Fox pulled its New York stations, WNYW (Fox 5) and WWOR (My9), WTXF (Fox 29) in Philadelphia as well as a few of its cable networks. Cablevision says Fox is demanding too much money for its programming. Fox says Cablevision is the one that is removing programming from consumers.
Whatever the reason, the subscribers are the losers and they are blacked out from programming like MLB, the NFL, Glee (ugh!), Bones, House and other shows.
Cablevision subscribers who tried to access Hulu of which Fox is a partner found that they could not this afternoon. Peter Kafka of All Things Digital noted that at first, Fox shut off access, but later turned it back on.
Kelly Riddell of Bloomberg chronicles the history of this dispute.
Tony Romm of Politico says Capitol Hill may get involved in the dispute sooner than later.
Industry watcher Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times says the dispute could get ugly if this extends to the World Series and the New York Yankees are involved.
John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable says Congress is calling for FCC intervention.
Talks between Cablevision and Fox are expected to resume on Sunday, but not before the beginning of the Lions-Giants game so fans may have to scramble for radios or find a sports bar to access the contest.
