Fox battle with Cablevision may prevent Phillies and Yankee fans from watching their teams in the playoffs
Baseball fans that subscribe to Cablevision in Philadelphia and New York, 3.1 million strong, may lose access to Fox, which happens to be broadcasting the American League and National League Championship Series. Both the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia
Phillies are still alive in the MLB playoffs.
Cablevision and Fox are currently in a contract squabble in which Fox is demanding an additional 80 million from Cablevision for the right to broadcast Fox’s channels. Currently Cablevision pays 70 million for 12 stations.
Republican Congressman, Peter King, has stated it would be ‘unconscionable’ for the two companies to prevent fans from watching the games on television in a letter attempting to get the companies to settle before Friday night’s midnight deadline.
Richard Greenfield, analyst for financial services firm BTIG, says Fox is not going to give in to Cablevision in the dispute, but that an agreement will be reached either before the midnight deadline, or at least before the New York Giants game which starts
at 1pm on Sunday.
Rebecca Arbogast of the investment firm Stifel Nicolaus says that Fox’s plan could backfire, and if it does angry baseball fans would pressure Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to “do something to prevent consumer disruptions.”
If Congress does step in, it is unlikely that any decision they make is going to be something that benefits Fox, although Cablevision wouldn’t object.
"While we would rather come to terms directly with News Corp., binding arbitration may be the best and fairest way to resolve this matter," said Cablevision spokesman Charles Schueler.
Baseball is considered America’s national pastime, using it as leverage to make more money is surely within the confines of Capitalism and ‘The American Way’, but in every society some things are considered sacred, and in the United States, one of those
things is baseball.
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