82 academy awards

Television viewers in more than 3 million homes in New York City and its suburbs discovered this morning that their cable TV provider was no longer carrying local station WABC, flagship of the ABC Television network, raising the possibility that they might not be able to watch tonight’s globally-televised 82nd annual Academy Awards ceremony.

The cutoff came after the breakdown of negotiations between The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, and Cablevision Systems Corporation, one of the nation’s largest cable companies. Disney wants more from Cablevision in so-called “retransmission fees” for the right to transmit the WABC signal to the cable company’s subscribers. When the two sides couldn’t reach agreement by their current contract deadline, Disney pulled the WABC signal.

These two prosperous companies will undoubtedly sort out their dispute, maybe even in time for tonight’s orgy of Hollywood self-congratulation. What’s notable about the confrontation, however, is the harsh public language used by corporate combatants and the hints it provides of progress in the movement toward corporate governance reform.

On its web site for customers, for example, Cablevision argued: “It is wrong for ABC to demand $40 million in new fees, which is nothing more than a new TV tax, to help pay the salaries and bonuses for top ABC executives.” (Translation: Executive compensation levels at Disney are a real issue. That affects the type and quality of TV programming you receive.)

Disney’s WABC fired back: “Cablevision pocketed almost $8 billion last year, and now customers aren’t getting what they pay for – again. It’s time for Jim Dolan and the Dolan family dynasty to finally step up, be fair, and do what’s right for our viewers.” (Translation: The Dolan family makes an awfully good living because it tightly controls publicly-held Cablevision through its ownership of a special Class B common stock. That affects the type and quality TV programming you receive.)


It’s no wonder that The Morning Bridge, a TV industry newsletter, published a special Sunday morning bulletin focusing on the war of words and asking: “Think anybody wins in these situations?”