Disney and Major Cable Operator in nasty PR fight

[CandyMandy]

People in the New York City area are probably already aware of this, but for those who aren't: Disney and Cablevision are currently engaged in literal war over the fees Disney is asking for Cablevision to pay to carry their WABC subsidiary. Each is acussing the other of threatening to cut ABC programming off the cable system and each is trying to rally consumers to their side of the fight:

Cablevision salvo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XaLbctaHqA

Disney shoots back:

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHooxqFr0Is

 

[medic318]

Glad I switched to verizon last year. This is the second network they are fighting with. They took food network/hgtv off the air effective Jan 1st due to a dispute.

 

[eeyorepixie]

Honestly, I love Disney but I not a fan of their cable shows...I have all young DD's 10,9 & 8 and I am sorry but all their shows other than the ones for littler ones have kids kissing other kids...really I do not need them to think about this stuff for awhile, it would be better suited for Teen Disney(they need a teen Disney)...O.K. I know it it is off topic...but really am I the only one who feels this way about Cable Disney?

I know it is all over our culture, but I do not expect this from Disney...I do not need to help my DD's to grow up faster than they should...

I could not block just the shows that seemed innapropriate, so I ended up having to block the whole channel.

They need to come up with a way to rate these shows better and more accurately for the age level and then have a way we can do a blanket block of all shows in that category for kids.

O.k. stepping down from my soap box...

 

[doconeill]

Part of the problem is that now a single entity owns cable and broadcast channels. Most people rely on cable/satellite for their broadcast channels now, but the megacorp networks are big enough to strongarm cable operators in negotiations by threatening to withhold the broadcast carry rights if they don't carry their latest channel know one has heard of, AND pay them to do it. The cable operator in return try to strongarm the networks by threatening to cut of large swaths of viewers from the networks.

Verizon won't be immune to this - they are still relatively small, but when the times comes the same posturing will occur.

Don't forget - Disney is not only the Disney Channel and Disney XD, but also ABC, all of ESPN, ABC Family, and probably a few others.

Just TRY and take ESPN away and see what happens.

BOTH sides are to blame.

 

[medic318]

The only problem with this is cablevision has charged for WABC channel 7 for years. My aunt had a very basic cable package years ago, was only basic channels, channel guide, couple of UHF channels and their "News 12" (local news), and she paid $20.00 a month for it. I really don't blame ABC/Disney for saying if you are getting paid for our free service, we want some of the pie too. But I have had other issues with the way they treat their customers. Up until about 2 years ago, they had a monopoly on cable service on Long Island and treated their customers like it. Constantly raised prices and never added new services except to different tiers. No new channels. And now that people are leaving to go to verizon, they call constantly and beg you to come back. I get mail form them at least once a week, and was getting phone calls and unsolicited visits at least twice a month until I put them on the do not call list.

 

[CandyMandy]

This dispute went to next (read: ugly) level last night at midnight, when Disney made good on its threat to pull ABC from the Cablevision system. At exactly 12am, the re-run of "Lost" that was running on WABC abruptly stopped, and was briefly replaced by the folllowing screen:

That message was up for about 10 seconds before the screen went blank (presumably when Cablevision cut off the signal from WABC containing it). Since then, when Cablevision customers turn to WABC (channel 7 on the system) they see a long message blaming the greed of the owners of ABC (read: Disney) for the cutoff.

About 3.1 million households in the NYC area are now stuck in the middle of all this.

 

[ChrisFL]

Wow, thats crazy!

 

[CandyMandy]

Wow, thats crazy!

It is.

We just got a phone call from my mother in law, whole lives in southern CT and is a Cablevision customer.

She (and her neighbors) are all fuming at both parties, but particularly Disney for it cutting of ABC service right before the Academy awards. She said most of them feel Disney did that intentionally, thinking that preventing millions of people from being able to view one of the most watched shows of the year would raise consumer pressure on Cablevision to give Disney whatever it is asking for.

But it appears (if she and her neighbors are representative) that is backfiring. i.e. they feel what Disney did was simply nasty and spiteful to people who don't have any control on the negotiations.

 

[medic318]

They put WABC back on at 8:43 in the middle of the academy awards.

 

[Steph2527]

It was quite annoying!! Finally at about 8:50...ABC7 came back on!