NEW YORK (Reuters) – Cablevision Systems Corp said on Thursday it would agree to arbitration to avoid losing some of its customers' favorite shows such as "Glee" and "House," as well as NFL football games, in a programing fee dispute with News Corp's Fox Networks.
But with the October 15 midnight deadline approaching, Fox Networks declined Cablevision's offer saying the cable operator had refused to negotiate fairly and arbitration would "only ensure that more unnecessary disputes arise in the future."
The dispute is the latest this year between cable operators reluctant to pay higher fees to programmers. In particular, the disputes have heated up over broadcasters like Fox and CBS Corp demanding cash for the right to carry their free-to-air signals.
New York Congressman Steve Israel told Reuters on Wednesday that both sides ought to agree to a binding arbitration.
Cablevision said it had offered a new proposal to News Corp on Wednesday and the sides are continuing to negotiate terms of a new deal. It said it currently pays News Corp $70 million every year for its channels but the Rupert Murdoch-run company is demanding more than $150 million a year.
Fox executives have been encouraged by Murdoch to push to get paid cash for retransmission of its signals.
The channels that could be affected include local stations Fox 5 and MyNetwork 9 in New York, Fox 29 in Philadelphia and cable networks Fox Deportes, NatGeo Wild and Fox Business Channel.
"We will work around the clock to reach a new agreement and have appealed to News Corp. not to pull the plug on Fox 5 and My9. Cablevision would never take these broadcast stations away from our customers," a Cablevision spokesman Charles Schueler said in a statement.
Fox is also in two ongoing programing fee disputes with satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp. Those disputes have seen some of its cable channels go off air, and there is the possibility that Dish customers could also lose Fox local broadcast stations at the end of the month.
Last March Cablevision customers lost Walt Disney Co's ABC for several hours until 15 minutes into the live telecast of the Academy Awards.
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