While the battle between Fox Broadcasting and Time Warner Cable
appeared to wage on as the new decade rang in, Scripps Networks
Interactive said it has pulled its popular Food Network and HGTV
channels from more than 3 million Cablevision Systems subscribers in
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
In a statement issued at 12:01
a.m. on Jan. 1, Scripps said the channels "went off the air on
Cablevision systems in New York City, Long Island and the Tri-State
Region at midnight New Year's Eve after the cable operator failed to
negotiate acceptable rates for the programming distribution rights."
On
Cablevision Systems in New Jersey, the MSO is running this message on
both HGTV and Food: "We wanted to keep bringing you these channels. We
apologize for the inconvenience. For more visit
www.cablevision.com/scripps. Why? Cablevision has tried to reach a fair
agreement."
A similar message was running on Cablevision's system reaching Westchester County, New York.
Scripps
has been reportedly seeking significant increases in carriage fees for
Food, which according to SNL Kagan was receiving on average about 9
cents per subscriber per month. The higher rated HGTV was receiving
about 12 cents per month, according to SNL Kagan. At the UBS Global
Media and Communications conference last month, Scripps Networks
chairman and CEO Ken Lowe had said the programmer would seek substantial increases for Food Network.
