A dispute over retransmission fees has pushed WPIX-TV off Cablevision.
The Tribune-owned station was dropped from Long Island's dominant cable provider's channel lineup over what Cablevision called "anti-consumer demands" by the WPIX parent.
But WPIX said it had hoped to keep the station on air while negotiations continued.
In a statement, Tribune wrote that "without warning, Cablevision unilaterally removed four Tribune stations in four markets from its cable systems. Cablevison took this action despite our offer of an unconditional extension of the current carriage agreement with no change in terms while negotiations continued."
Cablevision, meanwhile, fired back, arguing that Tribune was trying to solve its financial problems "on the backs of Cablevision customers."
Other Tribune-owned stations also went dark in south Jersey and in Connecticut.
Editor's Note: Patch has a partnership with PIX 11, called where the station features major stories from Patch sites in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
The use is mostly news, but also the Olympics, and any major soccer match in the world, as well as some minor soccer matches. We do NOT get NFL or MLB games because we are a business, but not in the business of (buying or selling) pro football or major league baseball games. Service, quality, price, we are happy with Direct TV.
The newer version simply plugs into your internet router (and a wall power supply), and is on as long as your router is on, but this allows you to turn off your computer and still have phone service. We have 3 lines, split between 2-old and 1-new unit. The newer one is better as it reboots automatically on power failures, so it requires no attention at all. One great thing is that you can choose to have a non-local phone number (one of our three lines is a 305 number in Key West to allow local calls in and out of the Keys). The router should be hooked to high speed internet connection (we have Cablevison' Optimum Online). I believe Radio Shack has a free-trial policy with return privileges: buy the $69 unit (which includes 1 year of calls). But make sure you can return it. Reliable? Yes.
AH, no blacked out channels yet. When Stations decide to raise rates to providers who pays? Should the provider deem the rate increase is cost prohibitive then they try to negotiate and or strike (blackout the channel).
this is the same thing as governments wasting our tax dollars then crying about the terrible financial state they are in. It's about banks giving out money to those who clearly would not be able to pasy it back and then we have to pay for the bail outs.
Cablevision did not want to just sit back and tell subscribers there is a going to be a rate increase because Tribune raised the cost to allow cable to use thier signal. The analogy was that banks did whatever they wanted to do without consideration for the customers. Everyone suffered. Now cablevision is in a position to tell subscribers unless you want a rate increase we will fight those networks which want to outprice themselves from our market,. Had banks stood up and said what the hell is going on we can not allow individual banks to authorize mortages to those who clear;y can not pay them. Banks on the other hand cared less about cutomers.