Cablevision and Disney Finally Reached a Deal

After a weeklong of negotiations Cablevision and WABC reached a deal which would allow Cablevision to transmit Channel 7 of WABC.

Channel 7 couldn’t be watched for more than 20 hours as there was a fee dispute over how much WABC was being paid. After the Channel 7 was taken off air Cablevision customers in New York were found buying over the air antennas just to watch the channel.

After the deal people of New York City could watch about 13 minutes into the Oscars although by that time people would have probably found another way of watching Oscars.

Cable companies aren’t ready to pay more for the content that they show because subscribers aren’t ready to pay more these days. In addition, cable companies need to beat competition from previously unknown quarters like telephone companies like Verizon Communications and satellite providers DirecTV.

Mr. Jeffery Cole who is the director of USC’s Center for Digital Future said that broadcasting networks like ABC are trying not suffer the fate of newspaper of music industries which have been plagued by too much free content on the internet. Once they were content with selling their programming but now broadcasters want payment for the cable company to carry their channel as well.

It is similar to what happened in this case when the proposed hike in prices asked by WABC was not agreed to by Cablevision leading to the 1 week long stand off.

According to sources Cablevision pays WABC around $200 mill a year to air its cable programming. The new deal sees Cable Vision pay WABC a few more millions.

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One Response to “Cablevision and Disney Finally Reached a Deal”

1. republicanblack says:

   March 9, 2010 at 8:20 am

   I can’t believe my childhood channel is shaking down cable like this. I just cannot put my fingers around why disney would choose to fight like this. Check out this article I came across about Disney arbitration suit it’s a different point of view

   http://bit.ly/bhSurD