NEWARK - The city's Cablevision Systems Corporation customers, barring any post-5 p.m. Oct. 20 developments, are among the 3.1 million metropolitan New York City area subscribers who are still having to directly go without six of FOX News Corporation's channels of programming since 12:01 a.m. Oct. 16.

Such breaking news may come from at least three directions. Gov. Christopher Christie (R-Mendham), for example, had expressed his concern on the News Corp./Cablevision negotiations impasse to the state's Board of Public Utilities Oct. 18. U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) and Robert Menendez (D-Union City), the same day, have also urged the Federal Communications Commission to intercede.

 

The third direction may be from across the Cablevision/News Corp. negotiating table. Both sides may take up the FCC's pre-Oct. 15 suggestion for a mediator. News Corp. may take up Cablevision's suggestion for an arbitrator.

Members from both sides have said, in published reports, that there was an in-person meeting Oct. 18 and by telephone Oct. 19.

A difference of $80 million in retransmission fees is at issue. News Corp., the parent of FOX and My9 channels, is asking for $150 million. Cablevision, parent of Cablevision-Newark, is balking at what it had previously paid $70 million for.

Montclair State University assistant communication professor Marc Rosenweig said to Local Talk that a governmental arm may most likely reach out to the disputing parties.

"In most - but not all - cases, the sides come back to the table by government intervention," said Rosenweig Oct. 19. "Government representatives will go to them saying that their constituents are not being served. To prevent looking unpopular, the sides may accept a mediator or binding arbitration."

The above remains cold comfort to those who missed regular or special programming. Sports fans, in the latter case, have missed four MLB Philadelphia Phillies-San Francisco Giants National League Championship Series baseball games and the Oct. 17 NFL Giants-Detroit Lions football game.

Some fans sought out friends or taverns that had FOX programming provided by The Dish Network or other satellite carriers. It is not known how many Cablevision subscribers have switched to another cable, terrestrial or satellite medium.

Cablevision.com, on its front page, carries an on-line petition for News Corp. to return to the table. News Corp., in Oct. 15 "New York Post" advertising, asked viewers not to "be part of Cablevision's game." Cablevision owns New York Newsday and am.New York; "The Post" is among News Corp.'s holdings.

An Oct. 15 negotiations breakdown prompted News Corp. to stop distributing WNYW Channel 5-New York, WXTF Channel 29-Philadelphia, WWOR My 9, FOX Business, FOX Deportes and Nat Geo Wild at 12:01 a.m. Oct. 16. News Corp. had also briefly blocked programming on FOX.com and Hulu.

FOX News, Fox Sports, FX and the National Geographic channels remain available.

"The local television stations want two revenue streams like the cable and satellite television companies do," said Rosenweig, speaking from his Glen Rock home. "The stations have mostly revenue from advertisers and want reprogramming rights fees like the others."

Some local viewers remember a similar dispute with ABC Television and another cable carrier that was not resolved until 8:45 p.m. local time March 7. The "live from Los Angeles" 82nd Academy Awards ceremony actually began at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. ABC still registered 41.6 million viewers, a 13 percent increase over last year.

Metro New York Cablevision subscribers - including Newarkers - also had to go without HGTV and Food Network programming Jan. 1-21 until the carrier and programmer came to a retransmission agreement. Their old contract ended Dec. 31.

Rosenweig said that there will be more disputes between content providers and content carriers - and more blackouts. The four-year full-time MSU professor added that one may not escape blackouts by watching on satellite or computer.

"One may be watching shows on a computer," said Rosenweig, "but someone pays for the transmission rights along the way."

(At present, News Corp. has blocked Cablevision customers from having online access to its programming.)

Cablevision became one of the nation's largest cable television carriers out of 12 Long Island studios in the 1970s. News Corp., has its genesis with Rupert Murdoch's Australian and English newspapers in the 1960s.

News Corp.'s WWOR and WNYW stations, which it respectively bought from RKO/Chris-Craft Industries in 1997 and Metromedia in 1986, have more than a Local Talk audience. The two stations, thanks to Louis Bamberger and Allen B. DuMont, share an eastern Essex County heritage.

Bamberger brought what became radio station WOR 710 AM from its Westinghouse Meter Factory studio on Orange and Plane Street into his flagship department store at Washington and Market streets in the late 1920s. Bamberger Broadcating later established WOR 98.7 FM and WOR TV and sold all three outlets to RKO/General Tire. Fox Television bought WWOR in 2007.

WNYW Channel 5 started life in 1946 as WADB - as in longtime Montclair resident Alfred B. DuMont. The inventor had a fourth network - against CBS, NBC and later ABC - to sell his television sets until 1956.

DuMont sold WADB to Metromedia's Sam Kluge, who later renamed it after its WNEW 1130 AM and WNEW 102.7 FM radio stations. Fox Television bought WNEW Channel 5 in 1986 and changed its call letters. MSU has its television studios bear DuMont's name.