Cablevision standoff
ends as Oscars begin
Company reaches deal with Disney to restore WABC signal
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Mar 8, 2010
Just in time for the first award, but mercifully sparing them that awkward Neil Patrick Harris opening number, Cablevision customers had their WABC signals restored 15 minutes into the Academy Awards broadcast last night, ending a nasty dispute over retrans fees between the cable carrier and WABC parent Walt Disney.
At midnight on Saturday, WABC went dark after Disney suspended the signal, and less than an hour before the ceremony Disney CEO Bob Iger told a reporter on the Oscars red carpet that the two sides were still talking.
After the signal had been restored, both sides were mum on the financial terms of the deal, with Cablevision only saying it was "happy" WABC had been restored.
Cablevision claimed that Disney was seeking up to $40 million to carry WABC, a free-to-air broadcaster that had cost Cablevision nothing in the past.
But that was then. These days broadcast networks are keen on getting money where they can find it, coming out of a brutal recession, and retrans is expected to be a major battleground in coming years between the broadcasters and the cable companies.
Late last year News Corp. and Time Warner Cable got into a fight that resulted in similar posturing from both sides before they reached an agreement. And CBS has said it is already receiving retrans money and will continue to push for it in the future.
After an appeal from Sen. John Kerry to step in, the Federal Communications Commission admonished both parties in a statement issued Sunday but did not get involved in the dispute.
ABC has to be relieved. The blacked-out customers represented 3.1 million households, a sizeable chunk for the network's highest-rated broadcast of the year.
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