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Cablevision Is Gangster

You'd think that after Cablevision stood its ground in its dispute with Scripps over HGTV and Food Network that other companies would realize that Cablevision doesn't fuck around...

So I woke up this morning to turn on the TV and go about my normal routine. When I turn my cablebox on, it goes directly to 6ABC for the news. Today, though, the box went to channel 1999, which said ALERT. "But, I paid my bill", I thought. No, I saw Cablevision going at ABC (or, more specifically, WABC-7 in NY) the same way they took Scripps to task:



Looks like ABC threatens to pull WABC-7 NY at 12:01AM, Sunday over a $40M dispute. The beef is over what "Free TV" is - ABC is normally available "free over the air", but the cable operator(s) normally don't pay for those kinds of channels, and with Disney owning ABC, ESPN and other channels, and getting a HEFTY payment from Cablevision to run those channels (not to mention the fact that ABC streams a lot of their popular shows online 24 hours after airing), you'd think that additional monies being asked for sounds kind of ludicrous... right?

I'm kind of lucky, seeing as in the area of NJ I live in, we've always gotten local channels from Philly AND NYC (meaning two ABCs, two NBCs, two CBSs, with one for Philly and one for New York). I'm good, especially when it comes to LOST, if WABC-7 does get pulled. New York is one of the larger blocks in Cablevision's cable monopoly, though, so this could be a serious blow.

Rich folks arguing over money is never funny, because the only ones who suffer are the cats who get bled for cable bills - us. Hopefully this is resolved, early. If not, any NY LOST heads can e-mail me for links to the shows (streams AND downloads) if need be. And if you're not happy with this, hit up cablevision.com/ABC for details on how to complain.
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