The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, one day after court documents showed that Viacom and Time Warner Cable Inc are trying to settle similar litigation.
Cablevision Systems Corp.’s board of directors has approved the company’s plans to spin off its Rainbow Media unit — parent of cable channels AMC (home of “The Walking Dead,” “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad”), IFC, WE, Sundance Channel and Wedding Central.
BETHPAGE, N.Y., March 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Following ABC Disney’s decision to pull WABC off Cablevision at midnight Saturday, Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC) alerted its iO® TV customers that today it would provide Video On Demand (VOD) movies at no charge, including access to Academy Award nominated films. Cablevision has also enlisted former New York Post “Page Six” Deputy Editor Paula Froelich to blog live coverage of tonight’s Oscars and has communicated additional ways for customers to access Academy Awards red carpet and event coverage on television and online.
Cablevision tries to appease frustrated viewers by giving away movie rentals tonight, many of which are nominated films. They also provide links to alternative Oscar coverage. Nice try, but it’s not the same. Too little too late.
Cablevision V. ABC (Press Release Quotes)
Cablevision: It is now painfully clear to millions of New York area households that Disney CEO Bob Iger will hold his own ABC viewers hostage in order to extract $40 million in new fees from Cablevision. We call on Bob Iger to immediately return ABC to Cablevision customers while we continue to work to reach a fair agreement.
ABC: Cablevision has once again betrayed its subscribers by losing ABC7, the most popular station in the tri-state area. This follows two years of negotiations, during which we worked diligently, up to the final moments, to reach an agreement. Cablevision pocketed almost $8 billion last year, and now customers aren't getting what they pay for...again. It's time for Jim Dolan and the Dolan Family Dynasty to finally step up, be fair, and do what's right for our viewers.
Me: [Face palm]
Watching as much ABC as I can, because who knows if it’ll be there come tomorrow.
Thankfully SNL doesn’t air on the Alphabet net.
Writing reams of Oscar dish these past weeks has gotten me properly pumped up for Sunday’s broadcast. But it is slowly dawning on me that, because I am a Cablevision customer, I might not be able to watch the Academy Awards in my home.
My colleague Nikki Finke will update you on the fight between Cablevision and Disney-owned WABC-TV, but I don’t much care who’s right and who’s wrong. Why am I banned from the Oscars? What am I, Nicolas Chartier?
As a New Yorker, I only need TV programming to be reliable a handful of times: The Super Bowl… Yankees and Giants games… And the Oscars. Must I canvas the neighborhood for a satellite dish on the roof, and make friends with that homeowner? Or go to Radio Shack, buy one of those awful antennas, and risk life and limb climbing on my own home’s roof again after finally removing the Xmas decorations a week ago?
I hope the louts at Disney and Cablevision settle this soon. Because if I have to experience Sunday’s Oscars solely through Nikki’s annual liveblogging with its subversive and cynical observations, my dispatches Monday will be filled with a level of snark that won’t be good for anybody.
What he said.
