Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH) is apparently having an easier time negotiating with News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA) and its Fox Networks than Cablevision Systems (NYSE: CVC). Variety reports that "reps for Fox and Dish indicated that the sides were making progress in their ongoing negotiations and were hopeful of averting a shutoff (Sunday) of the (broadcast) stations."
That's a little different than the cable and sports networks which Fox blacked out starting Oct. 1 and it's a little different than the nearly two-week old fight between the broadcaster and Cablevision. Of course, Dish has 14.3 million subscribers to Cablevision's 3 million, so that might have something to do with it as well.
Speaking of Cablevision, the PR campaign continued to roll from Long Island with the latest release called on "government entities and non-profit organizations to consider retransmitting the World Series over the Internet for free." That would certainly be a lot cheaper than Cablevision's earlier pledge to reimburse subscribers who used pay service MLB.com to see the games.
Cablevision cited a "statutory exemption" that would allow the retransmission free over the Internet and issued the press release "to call upon governmental and non-profit entities to consider making use of it for the World Series and to fulfill the critical role that Congress gave them in the dissemination of pubic broadcasting for free."
We'll let you insert your own snarky comments at this point.
For more:
- see this story
- and this news release
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