NJ State Senator Wants Retrans Impasse Refund

New Jersey State Senator Tom Goodwin wants
Cablevision to reimburse its customers for the ongoing channel blackouts due to
the Fox/Cablevision retransmission consent dispute.

While most of the legislative input has focused on
keeping signals on the air or encouraging outside arbitration, Goodwin instead
asked the cable operator to compensate his constituents for lost channels.

"The ratepayers in my district and across the
state are being held hostage by these negotiations and are being deprived of
the services they pay for. I ask that you reimburse Cablevision customers for
each day that they are denied these channels," said Goodwin in a letter to
Cablevision President James Dolan.

Goodwin described himself as a lifelong Phillies
fan and Cablevision customer.

Cablevision customers have not been able to see the Phillies playoff
games on their system since Oct. 16.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.