SNI vs. CVC Follow-up

OK. So hours after I predicted the Cablevision-SNI battle would be likely to be protracted, the two sides settled and Scripps programming was reinstated to Cablevision subscribers. I was wrong. I thought that if Cablevision had denied Yankees fans the YES network for over a year, they would have no problem stringing Long Island foodies along for a few months. Maybe there should be a seven day waiting period for bloggers too!

One of my readers raised an interesting question. As Scripps was airing their programming on broadcast TV, what was the reaction from other affiliates? I’m sure calls were placed to Knoxville about this by other cable ops in the NY DMA. Also, you probably recall that last week Cablevision CEO James Dolan was making some very public statements that maybe the bundled programming model was outmoded. Almost certainly it was a public statement made to illustrate and protest the carriage requirements in the SNI Agreement. Chances are that Food Network and HGTV will likely to continue to be carried on Expanded Basic. Cable operators are no closer to a la carte or themed tiers than they were before. As far as the big question, “Did Scripps get the “fair value” they were seeking; the 200% increase that CVC said that SNI wanted?” All the press statements say are that the “terms of the deal were not disclosed”.

While I’ve made notes to deal with programming bundling in a later post, I’m not even going to touch the question of whether New York’s foodies scare CVC more than Yankees fans. I guess all I can say is, “Hey Comcast, want me to do a post on the stalemate between Versus and DirecTV?”