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TagsBY LINDA MOSS
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Cablevision CEO James Dolan Tuesday invited News Corp. president Chase Carey to meet him in Washington and have federal regulators mediate the impasse that threatens to black out the World Series for more than 900,000 cable customers in New Jersey.
Dolan sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski saying that only with the regulator's intervention "will productive, good faith talks occur" in the retransmission-consent battle between Cablevision and News Corp.
On Oct. 15 Rupert Murdoch's company yanked its Fox stations WNYW and WWOR in New York City and WTXF in Philadelphia from Cablevision in a dispute over how much the cable company should pay for the privilege of carrying those stations.
So at this point about 3 million Cablevision customers in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey — which makes up just over 900,000 of the total — will miss the kickoff of the World Series tonight, as the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants play Game One.
In his letter to Genachowski, Dolan offered to be in he FCC's offices Wednesday morning, with the World series about to kickoff, "with new, constructive offers, prepared to reach agreement."
But it doesn't look like Carey will be making the trip east from Los Angeles, despite Dolan's offer to go to the Washington.
"It's just a publicity stunt," a Fox source said. "Dolan is clearly looking for ink."
On Tuesday Fox also sent Cablevision a cease-and-decease letter warning the cable company to stop encouraging theft of copyrighted material. That letter was delivered to Cablevision in response to a New York Daily News story that reported that the cable company was directing subscribers to illegal websites to view Fox shows, as well as coverage of National Football League games and Major League Baseball's playoffs - all copyrighted content.
"Copyright law exists to protect the very creative freedoms that fuel our industry," Fox said in a statement Tuesday. "As both a creator and owner of intellectual property — not to mention major sports franchises — Cablevision knows better and should immediately call an end to this unlawful activity."
Fox Tuesday also filed a 7-page response to documents Cablevision filed with the FCC Monday. The FCC's Media Bureau had ordered both the cable company and News Corp. to explain in detail how they were complying the law that mandates they negotiate "in good faith."
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Fox told the FCC Tuesday that its arguments with Cablevision over price "are not bad-faith negotiating," as the cable operator had argued in its filing.
Cablevision had also accused Fox of timing the renegotiation of their carriage deal so it would coincide with "must-see" programming, such as the World Series.
"Nothing in such a tactic would be a violation of good-faith negotiating, and there is no FCC precedent that would support this assertion," Fox told the agency.
