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| Edited By: |Source: Reuters |Updated: Mar 17, 2018, 03:16 AM IST
Customers of Cablevision Systems Corp in New York lost broadcast signals of local station WABC on Sunday morning as the cable operator and TV network were unable to reach agreement on a new contract.
The loss of the signal means Cablevision customers will likely miss the broadcast of this year's Oscars awards extravaganza which is aired by Walt Disney Co's ABC network.
Cablevision said in a statement that Disney had been responsible for pulling the signal and called for Disney chief executive Bob Iger to return WABC to its customers while negotiations continue. The cable company said Iger was "holding ABC's viewers hostage in order to extract $40 million in new fees".
For its part, WABC said in a statement Cablevision had "betrayed its subscribers by losing ABC7". ABC and Cablevision have been fighting a very public battle in the last week accusing each other of being unreasonable in a dispute over how much the cable company should pay to carry ABC's free-to-air broadcast signals.
Cablevision, which has more than 3 million subscribers in the New York area, repeatedly claimed Disney is looking an extra $40 million in fees on top of the $200 million it already gets.
Disney executives have privately disputed those numbers and publicly said negotiations had been ongoing for two years.
This cable programming contract spat is the latest to involve Cablevision which also fell out with Scripps Network Interactive just ahead of New Year's Eve and lost signals for the Food Network and HGTV for three weeks.
Cablevision is keen to avoid a similar loss of programming dragging on and has hinted at involving regulators to help out arbitrate the dispute.
The US senator John Kerry had earlier called for the two sides to negotiate in good faith to reach a deal without the need to pull the channel off air.
