HUDSON COUNTY — As of Sunday night, ABC-7 had returned to Cablevision after being off the air since the morning. So viewers were able to catch most of the Academy Awards, and they can also breathe easier that “Lost” will not be lost on Tuesday.
But will more stations have this fight with cable companies? The New York Times says, you betcha, in a story quoted here:
The tentative agreement between The Walt Disney Company and Cablevision for WABC is just the latest in a string of recent feuds between media giants over transmission fees. …the issue is bigger than those two companies, and it promises to come up again and again as other cable providers and stations renegotiate their contracts…
Cable providers have long paid substantial fees to carry cable-only channels like ESPN and TNT, but have paid essentially nothing to carry traditional broadcast channels — a situation that the cash-starved broadcast networks have wanted to change. The decline of the TV advertising market has “accelerated that push” by the broadcasters…