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Channel 7 broadcaster is telling viewers to switch to Direct TV and Verizon FiOS

BY LINDA MOSS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Cablevision System's roughly 900,000 customers in New Jersey may miss the Academy Awards Sunday, and hit shows such as "Lost" and "Dancing with the Stars" longer term, if ABC (American Broadcasting Company) makes good on its threat to pull its signal from the cable operator.

On Monday WABC-TV, Channel 7, went public with its dispute with Cablevision over the compensation it wants from the cable company to retransmit its signals. If the two parties don't reach an accord, WABC could go dark for all 3.1 million of Cablevision's subscribers in New Jersey, Connecticut and New York as of 12:01 a.m. March 7.

During its airing of "The Bachelor" Monday night, WABC ran a spot warning viewers that it could yank its signal from Cablevision because the cable company is refusing to pay to carry the TV station.

The dispute between Cablevision and WABC-TV, which is owned by The Walt Disney Co., has kicked off with lots of acrimony. The station is running an ad campaign telling Cablevision customers to switch to services such as DirecTV and Verizon FiOS.

There were dueling press releases issued on the dispute Monday night.

"It is shocking that in these difficult economic times, ABC Disney is threatening to remove WABC unless Cablevision and its customers pay $40 million in new fees for programming that it offers today for free, both over-the-air and online," Charles Schueler, Cablevision's executive vice president of communications and community relations, said in a prepared statement.

"It is not fair for ABC Disney to hold Cablevision customers hostage by forcing them to pay what amounts to a new TV tax," Schueler said. "We urge ABC Disney not to pull the plug and instead work with us to reach a fair agreement."

In turn Rebecca Campbell, WABC-TV's vice president and general manager, said that her station has been trying to negotiate a retransmission consent deal with Cablevision for two years. The station has extended its contract with the cable company on a month-to-month basis as negotiations continued.

"With the help of our viewers, we've built ABC7 into the most watched station in the country, and have been trying for two years to get Cablevision to acknowledge the station's value to their business," Campbell said in her statement.

"Despite our best efforts, it has now become clear that Cablevision has no intention of coming to a fair agreement," she said. "We can no longer sit back and allow Cablevision to use our shows for free while they continue to charge their customers for them. We've worked too hard and invested too many millions of dollars in programming and community outreach, to be taken advantage of any longer - especially since our viewers can watch their favorite ABC7 shows free, over-the-air, or by switching to one of Cablevision's competitors."

The station advised Cablevision customers to visit www.saveABC7.com or call 877-990-ABC7 for information. WABC-TV's TV spot on its conflict with Cablevision in on the Web site.

Cablevision has a large presence in north and central Jersey, serving all of Passaic County and parts of Bergen, Morris, Essex, Monmouth, Ocean, Warren, Sussex, Mercer, Somerset and Middlesex counties. The state's largest city, Newark, is served by Cablevision, as is Hackensack.

Cablevision just resolved an acrimonious dispute it had with another programmer, Scripps Interactive Networks, in January. That battle resulted in Scripps pulling Food Network and HGTV off Cablevision's program lineup for three weeks, all over the issue of how much the company should pay to carry those two networks.