Cablevision has done it again. In a fee dispute with FOX Broadcasting, the plug has been pulled in the NY area on Channels 5 & 9.
For baseball fans, this means they'll miss the first game of the NLCS series tonight (Giants at Phillies); for NFL fans, the unspeakable - no football GIANTS tomorrow afternoon.
They're claiming that FOX itself pulled the plug, but make no mistake - the greed of Cablevision's Dolan family knows no bounds. Cablevision can buy up FOX ten times over, so vast is their empire. Can you imagine - they actually have Rupert Murdoch by the balls and, once again, the viewers at their mercy.
Do not forget Cablevision's blackout of ABC/Disney, when broadcasting was restored twenty minutes into the Academy Awards broadcast.
Years ago, when the Yankees were mired in a slump, Madison Square Garden Corporation (under previous ownership) entered into a lucrative long-term contract with the Yankees for the rights to broadcast the team's telecasts on cable on the MSG Network. That contract eventually expired when the Yankees were riding the crest of prosperity. George Steinbrenner had taken those funds and built the Yankees into the juggernaut that they still maintain.
In the interim, Cablevision had purchased the MSG enterprise, including their cable networks. It was going to cost a billion dollars to renew the MSG contract with the Yankees, but Charles Dolan had another idea - why spend a billion dollars on a tv contract, when for the same amount of money he could buy the Yankees outright and broadcast them over the MSG Network that he owned? Dolan and Steinbrenner had numerous lunches and dinners to discuss the potential deal, during which Steinbrenner craftily picked his brain about what it took to run a cable sports network. Finally, Steinbrenner announced publicly that he would sell the team for a billion dollars - as long as he continued running the Yankees. This was balderdash to Charles Dolan and the negotiations came to a halt. Shortly thereafter, the Yankees announced the creation of the YES Network - they had created their own sports network to broadcast their games. Dolan was embarrassed and humiliated. His wrath was felt when the YES Network (and Yankee games) were blacked out from Cablevision for an entire season. The Dolans could care less who they enraged, including the fans (their own customers) - you don't mess with Charlie Dolan.
This is a guy who has long espoused that every sporting event should be broadcast on cable on a pay-per-view basis. His idiot son runs the Cablevision empire in title only - the father continues to call all the shots.
Let's see how this latest dispute plays out. Cablevision never blinks an eye when it comes to holding viewers hostage. It will all be resolved eventually, and then Cablevision's monthly rates will increase - not that they've ever needed an excuse to do that in the past. Money talks, bullsh*t walks.