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Offers discount, $75 gift card and quick installs to get customers to switch

BY LINDA MOSS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

SECOND UPDATE

Verizon is looking to lure away Cablevision customers, who may lose WABC-TV this Sunday, by offering them a $75 gift card to switch to its FiOS TV service and arranging for swift installations.

The telco is running on-air and print ads, with the headline "Don't Miss Your Favorite ABC Shows," in local newspapers that spell out the details of its offer. The package is the FiOS Triple Play — TV, Internet and phone — for $84.99 a month for two years, a $600 savings from the usual cost, according to Verizon. Customers must sign up for the deal online to get the specially discounted price.

Verizon is extending the special offer as the showdown between ABC Disney, owner of WABC-TV, and Cablevision continues. ABC Disney wants cash compensation from Cablevision in exchange for carrying its TV station, Channel 7.

If the two sides don't reach an accord, WABC-TV will go black on Sunday in Cablevision's 3.1 million homes in the Tri-State area. That means the cable company's customers will miss the Oscars Sunday night, as well as popular ABC fare such as "The View," "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" next week.

Verizon said it has technicians and customers service reps standing by to serve Cablevision customers who want to make the switch. The telco also said it is arranging for speedy installs of its FiOS service.

Both ABC Disney and Cablevision are running full-page ads on their dispute. The broadcast maintains it should be paid for its highly rated, and costly, programming, especially because Cablevision charges its customers for WABC-TV.

In turn, Cablevision says it shouldn't have to pay for programming that WABC-TV provides for free over the air and on the Internet.

More than 60 officials on the national, state and local level have contacted the Federal Communications Commission or issued statements urging ABC Disney not to pull WABC-TV, but to instead continue negotiations with Cablevision.

Late Friday afternoon Cablevision issued a statement urging ABC Disney to listen to government officials and consumers and not pull the plug on WABC while negotiations continue. Cablevision has announced that it will leave the WABC Channel 7 position open and available and that the switch is in Disney President and CEO Bob Iger’s hands.

“There is one man who is going to decide whether New York gets to see the Oscars, and that's Disney President and CEO Bob Iger,” Charles Schueler, Cablevision’s executive vice president of communications, said.

“Cablevision already pays Disney more than $200 million a year and now they are demanding $40 million more,” Schueler said. “We call on Bob Iger to stop holding his own viewers hostage, end his threats to pull the plug on ABC at midnight and instead work with us to reach a fair agreement.  The switch is in Bob Iger’s hands.”

The President and General manager of WABC-TV, Rebecca Campbell responded with this statement:

"It's an insult to Cablevision customers that, with literally hours to go before losing access to ABC7, Cablevision is personally attacking Disney executives. Does Cablevision have such little regard for its subscribers' intelligence to think that they don't know a negotiation takes two parties? The inconvenient truth is that ABC7 has been prepared to reach a fair agreement for two years and Cablevision has refused to do its part. If Cablevision CEO James Dolan and the Dolan Family Dynasty have any regard at all for the millions of customers who pay hard earned dollars for their service, they will order their troops to stop slinging mud and start cutting a deal."