World Series returns to Cablevision

World Series returns to Cablevision

Game Three of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants will be aired by Cablevision as the company reached a new agreement with Fox Network on Saturday to pay higher broadcast fees.

The dispute between Fox and Cablevision has dragged on since October 16 and left many subscribers without several Fox channels including the World Series broadcast.

Fox affiliates in New York and Philadelphia, as well as National Geographic Wild, Fox Business Channel and Fox Deportes were all pulled by Fox from Cablevision’s lineup.

Bethpage, New York-based Cablevision criticized the Federal Communications Commission for not helping them during the dispute.

“In the absence of any meaningful action from the FCC, Cablevision has agreed to pay Fox an unfair price for multiple channels of its programming including many in which our customers have little or no interest,” the company said in a statement. “Cablevision conceded because it does not think its customers should any longer be denied the Fox programs they wish to see.”

Cablevision thanked its subscribers for staying with them during the blackout.

“In the end, our customers will pay more than they should for Fox programming, but less than they would have if we had accepted the unprecedented rates News Corp. was demanding when they pulled their channels off Cablevision,” the statement said.

Fox released its own statement regarding the resolution saying that its channels would again be available to 3 million customers of Cablevision. Both Fox and Cablevision did not disclose the details of the new deal.

Cablevision’s website says that it has more than 5 million customers in the New York metropolitan area.

Fox on Friday resolved a separate contract dispute with the Dish Network over programming rights to National Geographic, FX, and 19 regional Fox sports networks.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Sunday October 31 2010, 5:04 AM EST. Ref: CNN. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0