ABC7 vs Cablevision: ABC May Go OFF the Air March 7th! Here we go again.

Alert! ABC is back on the air!

Here we go again! This time ABC7 and Cablevision are at a dispute over “network fees” which may result in Cablevision customers losing ABC7 in the Tristate area. It feels like every two months, a new network wants to negotiate a deal that a Cable company disagrees with. In the end we’re placed with scary commercials, blogs, twitters, facebook groups, all taking sides over who’s right and who’s wrong.

In a nutshell: ABC is proposing new fees to cover the cost of their programming. Cablevision finds these fees excessive and doesn’t want customers to see a rate hike.

Let the smear campaign begin!

Being an observant viewer, I am instantly aware each company will place smear campaigns and tactics against the other company. It’s really interesting if you take the time to notice how each company tries their best to place viewers on their side. It leaves people like me utterly confused, and utterly devastated as you see two conflicting viewpoints and have no idea who to believe. It annoys me even further when fans start Facebook Groups and Fan pages blaming the other company for their problems. What you have to realize that this is pretty much a political fight between two candidates.

Cablevision Says:

Learning from it’s past mistakes Cablevision did something interesting. When you turn on your TV provided you have a digital cable box, the TV automatically goes to Channel 1999 which brings up a message from Cablevision!

This is extremely significant because HGTV and FOODTV had the upper hand by informing viewers first. Upon news articles, blogs, twitter postings, even a SAVE FOOD Network site, all forms of media brought everyone as much as they can together against the evil Cablevision!

Cablevision claims:

• ABC wants to charge excessive fees and is threatening to pull ABC7 off the air.
• ABC is demanding 40 million dollars in new fees.
• Cablevision has already been paying 200 million dollars for ABC.
• Cablevision offered numerous “fair” proposals but ABC top executives wouldn’t agree.

Cablevision throughout their various ads list several reasons as to why suddenly ABC wants an increase in fees. Their main point is how ABC “allegedly” is losing money in various markets, and they need some way to regain their losses.

Cablevision believes:

• ABC advertising revenues are down.
• ABC’s theme parks are struggling.
• ABC needs to continue funding ESPN for expensive sports broadcasting rights.

And the biggest kicker, “ABC needs to keep up with their executive salaries and bonuses.” What better way to rile the audience to your side by making such a bold claim. This ad runs on in an incessant loop using a deep voice instilling fear into the audience. Cablevision proposes to be on YOUR side and will do anything to make a fair deal or so we think… In fact Cablevision is apologizing first, thus placing the blame on ABC as to why your network will go off the air.

ABC Says:

With flashy graphics and riveting music, ABC’s ads will play the role of the innocent victim. “Cablevision wants LOST to get lost” runs the headline of their latest website. Expect even more websites to pop up on various social networking sites as the day draws near.

From my experience, viewers usually tend to side with the networks. This is only because they “can’t watch their favorite shows”, and they wouldn’t dare watch another network or quite frankly watch episodes online for free… (oops…)

ABC Claims:

• Cablevision charges broadcast fees every month to carry ABC7
• Cablevision pays nothing for ABC, instead the customer pays the bill.
• Cablevision is pocketing broadcast fee money for their own.
• Cablevision “believes” ABC7 is worth little to nothing.
• Cablevision proposed offers that were unreasonable and unrealistic.

So ABC’s biggest kicker, “Cablevision pays nothing for it” the customers pay for ABC and other a la carte channels on part of their “Basic Broadcast Tier.”  So essentially this means, WE the customers are paying to see ABC7, when generally it’s available for free over the air.

ABC7 wants customers to send a letter to Cablevision and demand that if they “lose my shows, lose my business.” Already they have provided several alternative methods of watching ABC7. This includes over the air for free, Direct TV, and finally VERIZON FIOS! (Oh no they didn’t!) 

ABC places the blame game on Cablevision, inferring that Cablevision would not pay a reasonable value to keep ABC on the air. ABC will propose to be on YOUR side, or so we think…

It made me think, if ABC is broadcasting for free, why would they ask TV providers to pay them money anyway. Oh well.

Customers always lose!

You know, when I watch and hear both sides of the story, I never really figure out what’s truly going on. I feel torn in half thinking;

“Hmm, I don’t want my cable bill to go up, So ABC is Greedy! They are the ones who are charging more!“

“But, Cablevision is greedy, they don’t pay anything for ABC. Why should I lose a channel I pay for!“ 

These two statements will be the main factor of why there will be numerous blog comments, facebook groups, twitters, everybody and their mother will take a side. “ABC IS GREEDY! NO CABLEVISION IS GREEDY!”

Even if we do lose the channel for whatever amount of days, it will still result in the same conclusion:

• Your cable bill go up anyway.
• Cablevision reaches an agreement with ABC? (Maybe)
• You will still pay the Broadcasting Fee.
• Switching to another Digital TV provider, you will still pay fees.
• ABC will still request for increase in fees every so often.

Pretty much no matter what the outcome is, we still lose. I mean think about it! When has your cable bill ever went down without taking off any services? Do you think by actually switching to another provider whether its from FIOS to CABLE or vice versa, you won’t have to pay such an incredibly large bill?  Will these additional fees ever disappear from your bill including the delicious activation fee? I don’t know, maybe we should just drop TV all together and things like this will be trivial..

Anyways, it’s time for me to watch LOST on the internet for FREE! (GASP!)