HGTV, Food Network taken off New Jersey and New York cable systems

Posted Jan 4, 2010 by Walt Belcher

Updated Jan 4, 2010 at 05:21 PM

In Florida, cable subscribers were sweating out a New Year’s Day deadline that might have seen Fox-owned networks taken off Bright House Networks. It didn’t happen as Fox Broadcasting, Bright House and Time Warner Cable made a last-minute deal. So the Fox stuff is still on in the Tampa area.

But in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, more than 3 million subscribers to Cablevision systems lost HGTV and the Food Network on Jan. 1 when the Scripps Networks Interactive company (which owns the networks) took them off in a fee dispute.

Couch potatoes are going to see more of these kinds of squabbles—and cable bills are certain to go up—as more and more networks want more money for their services.

Scripps said the two popular channels “went off the air on Cablevision systems in New York City, Long Island and the Tri-State Region at midnight New Year’s Eve after the cable operator failed to negotiate acceptable rates for the programming distribution rights.”

Just like in the Fox dispute with Time Warner, both sides are trying to rally public support. Cablevision Systems in New Jersey and New York is running a message instead of HGTV and Food: “We wanted to keep bringing you these channels. We apologize for the inconvenience. For more visit http://www.cablevision.com/scripps. Why? Cablevision has tried to reach a fair agreement.”

Reportedly, Scripps was receiving 9 cents per subscriber for Food and 12 cents per subscriber for HGTV, and wanted a substancial increase.

A Scripps executive issued a statement: “Viewers love our talent and our shows, which is why Food Network and HGTV rank among the top networks in cable. But our valuable networks simply are not being compensated like top ten networks by Cablevision. The distribution rates Cablevision pays for Food and HGTV are among the lowest in the industry.”

Cablevision also issued a statement that it is disappointed it could not reach an agreement with Scripps but will not bow to pressure.