So that they don't infect me while they've been fucking me non-stop since Saturday. I'm sure most, if not all of you have heard me implode about this issue once or twice already, but here it is for posterity.
Starting at the stroke of midnight, Saturday, October 16th, 2010, News Corp pulled from 3.5 million Cablevision subscribers their subsidiary channels Fox 5 (39 in Philly) and MY9, which nobody was really watching anyways. In fact, i think My9 has more viewers now that it is off the air. That's like telling your two-year old that he can't have any vagisil.
On Saturday, we missed Game 1 of the NLCS - San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies. On Sunday, Football games on Fox were blacked out as well, denying in-market fans their beloved New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. In addition to that, Sunday saw the continuation of the NLCS blackout, shuttering Game 2. We are now in the fourth day of disputes with no end in sight. In a few hours, I would count on missing Game 3 of the NLCS as well.
How about some background information on this whole fracas?
I'll get into it after the jump...
This is by no means the first time that this has happened. In fact, in the past 2 years, Cablevision customers have fallen victim to blackouts on three separate occasions. First, Scripps pulled their channels, notably, The Food Network, leaving gluttons and housewives with little to do during the day, and seriously curbing Robby's ability to masturbate at will. Last March, ABC was blacked out during the Academy Awards, and now FOX. There would seem to be a pattern forming here, but who is at fault?
Let's look at the facts as we know them.
Cablevision currently pays $70 million for FOX's family of channels, which includes Fox5 My9, NatGeo, FX, Fox News etc. a total of about 12 channels. Cablevision also claims that FOX is asking for an $80 million increase in rates for the same package in order to extend their contract. News Corp flatly denies this saying that it is "simply not true," but without providing any details, leading me to question whether that means that the numbers in question are not true, or maybe just a minute detail that isn't true that News Corp is using to broadly discredit all of Cablevision's claims. Either way, there is one thing that I am sure of. Cablevision would be more than happy to carry FOX's channels while negotiations are ongoing, but it was News Corp's prerogative to pull the plug on its viewers. FOX counters these allegations by saying that Cablevision expects preferential treatment, and refuse to sign on to the deal that hundreds of other providers are already locked into. Fox also claims that the price that they are offering is 70% lower than the price that Cablevision charges other providers for MSG and MSG Plus. On the flip side, Cablevision is offering to allow a binding arbitrator to make the call, indicating that they believe that the number that they offered is fair, yet News Corp relents. Jesus Christ, the only thing we know for sure is that somebody is lying to the world through their teeth.
Who loses in a case like this? You know that eventually News Corp is going to get a fuckload of money ($150 million or not, it's still defined as a "fuckload" by IRS standards) and Cablevision is going to get their channels. In the meantime, it's us, the viewers, the customers who are feeling the thick cock of life tear up our insides. Basically, what's going on here is that after a long week where i work my ass off for immigrant wages, i finally get home and cannot wait to watch some playoff baseball and Sunday football, but Fox is going to tell me that i can't do that. A die hard fan of the SF Giants and NY Giants is being punished because two billionaires are squabbling over a few fucking bucks. You and I and every fucking taxpayer in the state paid for the stadium that the Giants are playing in, yet we can't watch them play in it.
There is no telling how long this might go on for. The World Series starts on October 27th on Fox. Something tells me that this is going to have to be worked out by then. My thoughts on this are as follows: we need the FCC and / or congress to get involved. I'm not talking the "I'm gonna release a statement urging both sides to reach a resolution," because that's not fucking working, OK? We need legislation, and time is running out, somebody needs to get the ball rolling on this before it's too late. Both News Corp and Cablevision have demonstrated that they do not intend to reach a compromise for the benefit of the end users. The FCC needs to regulate retransmission proceedings, and prohibit networks from pulling their channels off the air.
Honestly, I had more faith in these two conglomerates. I thought that neither News Corp, nor Cablevision wants to have to deal with the eventuality of consumer rights advocacy groups, the government and the FCC getting involved, because once that happens, it never works out well for the companies involved. Seriously, who wants more oversight?? At this point though, it looks like both of these companies are paying chicken with neither of them planning to turn off the road, and the lowly viewers caught in between.
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