<p>Cablevision subscribers in the northeast have had the Food Network and HGTV blacked out since January 1st. There is a dispute between Cablevision and Scripps Network as to increased charges for these channels. Scripps wants the price that other popular channels are paid and Cablevision doesn’t want to pay it. These two channels have grown immensly in popularity in the past few years, yet Cablevision pays Scripps a much lower rate than other major channels. The Iron Chef special that aired this past Sunday will be rebroadcast on WPIX (channel 11 in the NY area) on Sunday, 1/10 at 8pm. I will give this dispute another week, then I will switch to FIOS.</p>
<p>You and me both. Thanks for the head up, though I will be in Boston visiting my son on Sunday and will miss it again! On a separate, though related note, have people been satisfied with bundled packages, whether cable or FIOS or whatever? We have TV and internet with Cablevision at the moment, but I’m seriously considering moving to Verizon for all services since our landlines and wireless are with them. How expensive are the boxes (I assume one needs them) through Verizon. I’m embarrassed to note how many TVs are in this house, but it really adds up.</p>
<p>thanks for the heads up OP…I feel locked into Cablevision b/c we’re “bundled” with the triple package of internet,cable and home phone.
I know people who are unhappy with their FIOS as well as people who are unhappy with their Cablevision.
One wonders whether running the Iron Chef special on local WPIX is a sympathy ploy in their dispute.
I’m annoyed with both parties in the dispute.</p>
<p>Scripps, the parent company of Food Network and HGTV, is partial owner of WPIX. They are showing Iron Chef to “sock it” to Cablevision. Cablevision also had a problem with the Yankees years ago and wouldn’t carry the YES network for quite a while. Scripps negotiated with all other cable providers for higher fees - for Food Network they want an increase to $.24 (cents) from $.08 they currently receive from each cable subscriber. When these fees were originally negotiated, these two channels weren’t as popular as they are now. Cablevision’s claim that it is a $20 million increase is blown out of proportion - it equates to $.54 cents per subscriber - a much higher number than Scripps is asking. Scripps settled with every other provider but they felt they had to pull these two stations off of Cablevision’s lineup. I have a feeling Cablevision wasn’t willing to negotiate at all.</p>