Food Network off the air in NY?

[Shane Greenwood]

Just saw this article that Cablevision is dropping FN & HGTV in New York over a fee dispute. Sounds like saber rattling to me, but maybe it's true. Anybody in NY know more?

http://cnnmoney.mobi/money/lt_ne/lt_n...

[cowenk]

FoodNetwork, Cooking Channel and HGTV all off the air on AT&T U-verse in Chicago. So PISSED. The few channels that the whole family can watch together and you don't have to worry about anything inappropriate. Comcast is coming on Saturday to install my new cable boxes and wireless network.

[mtbwustl]

They are off the air here in Dallas, too. I'm besides myself...

[Cheflambo]

This is the first time in a long time I have had anything good to say about Comcast! Over the years I've been sorely tempted to switch to AT&T ... so very glad (now) I did not.

[DGresh]

Just saw this: at least I can see the show I was waiting for (the White House Iron Chef special):

Food Network's "Iron Chef America: Super Chef Battle," featuring a guest appearance by First Lady Michelle Obama, will run Sunday evening on Tribune Co.'s WPIX in New York, and WTXX in Hartford, Conn., Scripps spokeswoman Cindy McConkey said Tuesday evening. Tribune owns a minority stake in Food Network.

The broadcast will be accompanied by a new marketing push about the dispute, featuring Scripps's on-air hosts, the latest in a series of salvos from each side in the programming dispute. Cablevision, for its part, launched an advertisement on its local cable systems Tuesday that named Scripps's chief executive, Ken Lowe, and described Scripps's actions as a "blatant attempt to hold viewers hostage while they demand a $20 million rate increase" annually.

A Cablevision spokesman declined to comment specifically on Scripps's over-the-air broadcast, but pointed to a statement that said, in part, "if Scripps really cared about their viewers, they would put their programming back on and negotiate a new agreement."

[cheereeo]

Awesome news DGresh! You are referring to this coming Sunday, January 10th, right?

[cheereeo]

One thing I wanted to add about the Iron Chef WH Special. My sister from MASS filled me in, and I was a bit turned off when she told me that actress Jane Seymour and some former female olympic swimmer (WHAT THE!!)were two of the judges. I hate that when they don't have foodie judges on Iron Chef. I like the critics, food mag editors, and the Queer Eye guy the best. Makes me almost not want to watch it anyway.

[thew]

i disagree. how many CHers, for example, are not food professionals, but have a great love and understanding of food???

[iluvcookies]

We absolutely do! (and I'm not a food pro)

[cheereeo]

I understand but I love when Jeffrey Steingarten blasts peoples dishes and then those like Donatella Arpais blast him back because he can be so incredibly rude. Celebrities tend to be too nice imho--or can't stand the food they are testing--for example, one episode, IC had Jenna Wolfe from the Today Show on as a judge, and it was a pork battle and she doesn't eat pork--she's kosher!

[goodhealthgourmet]

i was really looking forward to it, and personally i thought it was pretty lame. the Chairman wasn't even there, and though i don't have a problem with celebrity judges as long as they're well-versed in food, that wasn't really the case with Jane Seymour and Natalie Coughlin. considering that they made SUCH a big deal about this battle with all the over-the-top promos, i guess i expected heavyweights (no pun intended) when it came to the judging...perhaps more along the lines of Jeffrey, Andrew Knowlton, Michael Ruhlman, etc.

anyway, fortunately now you'll all have the opportunity to watch and judge for yourselves!

[DGresh]

yes!

[coney with everything]

NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/bus...

[jfood]

Good article...as jfood stated above, he wants to pay for what he views, similar to he wants to pay for what he eats in a restaurant. Then we will see the efficient market theory inplay when people tell the cable provider they do not want certain stations.

[DGresh]

I was shocked to read that cablevision is paying ESPN something close to $5 a month for our family. We barely EVER turn that one on. Pay per channel would allow the market to REALLY decide what people value. We might get better "directed" programming this way.

[KTinNYC]

A la carte cable TV has been my dream ever since I heard of the concept and it maybe coming via Apple and iTunes.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/t...

[coney with everything]

I don't know if you checked out the comments on that story, jfood, but I'd say the vast majority of commenters agree about a la carte pricing being the way to go with cable.

I know I'd be OK with ditching the shopping channels and Fox News.

[mcsheridan]

Price reduction under bundling is a myth, and the menu would shrink as well:

"...unmoored from the cable bundle, individual networks would have to charge vastly more money per subscriber. Under the current system, in which cable companies like Comcast pay the networks for carriage — and then pass on the cost to their customers — networks get to charge on the basis of everyone who subscribes to cable television, whether they watch the network or not....Take, for instance, ESPN, which charges the highest amount of any cable network: $3 per subscriber per month....Suppose in an à la carte world, 25 percent of the nation’s cable subscribers take ESPN. If that were the case, the network would have to charge each subscriber not $3, but $12 a month to keep its revenue the same....What percentage of cable subscribers would take Discovery, or the Food Network, or Oxygen, or Hallmark — or the many, many more obscure networks that you can now find up and down your cable box? Five percent? Ten percent?"

Much more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/24/bus...

Efficient market theory would in all likelihood reduce the quality of cable offerings in just the ways we wouldn't want. Only 'mass market' television appealing to the lowest common denominator would survive.

[jfood]

that is one point of view...jfood would be one to eliminate most of the crap on his cablevision selection and keep the price the same for those he likes...Looking at the quality of shows on HBO and SHO and they are pay to play, that would make that argument fail miserably.

[amanda3571]

A minor update:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/food-ne...

Real sad because I was so looking forward to the Iron Chef battle tonight.

[pitterpatter]

I don't have a TV, so I sometimes log onto the Food Network to waste an hour or so watching their videos of past seasons of Iron Chef, Throwdown, whatever. In the past couple of days, since I last looked, they have removed every video worth watching. Looks like they are playing for keeps. The NY Times says this:

On the other side, the Food Network and HGTV outage affected about 3.1 million subscribers in the New York metropolitan area on Friday. The owner of the popular channels, Scripps Networks, says it deserves more cash for them. “The distribution rates Cablevision pays for Food and HGTV are among the lowest in the industry,” said Kenneth W. Lowe, the chief executive of Scripps Networks Interactive.

According to the research firm SNL Kagan, distributors pay about 8 cents on average for Food Network and 13 cents for HGTV. Scripps was believed to be asking for about triple that amount, or roughly 25 cents for Food and 40 cents for HGTV.

Cablevision took a hard line in its own statement Friday, saying that it had “no expectation of carrying” Scripps’s programming again, “given the dramatic changes in their approach to working with distributors to reach television viewers.”

[Bakersfield Hound]

It appears to be a trend across the nation as cable TV stations are demanding higher fees for their programs. We had lost the local coverage from Fisher Communications last year thru DISH, now the local cable company is having the same issues. Some of the cable and satellite companies feel their are being held hostage.
Danny

[NE_Elaine]

I gave up cable in May09 because of the lack of content and the rising prices. I got a converter box for local channels but haven't even set it up. I thought I would miss cable much more than I have so far, but I seem to get so much more done and I have been making a real dent in my reading and ToDo lists.

[The Professor]

A few years ago the loss of the Food Network would have upset me a little...Comcast is still carrying it in NJ but quite frankly, these days I wouldn't miss it if they stopped. It's really gone downhill.

[jfood]

just tried calling, you cannot even get through to Cablevision.

[mrsdebdav]

What if Scripps temporarily made their shows available online? Scripps wins friends and Cablevision loses leverage.

[jfood]

Awesome idea.

[mrsdebdav]

@jfood
Coming from you, high praise indeed.

[mcf]

The shows are available online. I'd just rather TiVo them in my bedroom to watch when I can't sleep. I plan to switch to Verizon this week if no resolution and have called and emailed cablevision to say so.

[mrsdebdav]

MCF, where online are these programs?
Thanks in advance.

[mcf]

http://www.hgtv.com/full-episodes/package/index.html

I haven't found links to full episodes on Food network, sorry. I thought both were posting them, but only HGTV is. FN has an I phone app for viewing full episodes:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food-netwo...

[mrsdebdav]

Thanks for your response, mcf, and happy new year. I have been searching, unsuccessfully, for full Food Network episodes since (blackout) Friday.
I sent my son the iphone app info on Friday, but he said that full episodes are not available on that app - only previews.
I'm switching to fios tomorrow unless this is resolved.

[JohnE O]

It's a pissing contest that goes on about every other year between some cable company and some network. Neither has any sense in trying to jack up rates with an economy in the crapper. The biggest scam is that even if Cablevision does drop FN for an extended period of time, you won't see any reduction in your bill even though they're not paying the fees to FN.

[iluvcookies]

Here is a link to send an e-card to Cablevision.

http://www.ilovefoodnetwork.com/ecards/affiliate/?a=cablevision

This link was provided by Scripps Networks, parent complany of food network and HGTV

I am NOT pleased... not with what I pay to Cablevision every month. This is ridiculous.
Edited to add that this is what Cablevision has posted on their site:

http://www.cablevision.com/scripps/in...

[pg1chef]

get direct tv satilite it is better than cablevision

[DGresh]

I just checked into it after finding this news this morning. Unfortunately it won't really save any money per month per se. Why is directTV better?

I am absolutely furious about this situation. Especially with the Iron Chef White House special tomorrow!!

[Marge]

Me too, I was very much looking forward to the Iron Chef WH special!! I currently subscribe to Optimum "triple play" and I am really not up for the inconvenience of switching providers, but this is really unacceptable...anyone have feedback on verizon fios (I can certainly live without the channel 12 news...)??

[goodhealthgourmet]

not that it's much consolation, but the IC special was a bit of a snore!

[jfood]

Yet another wonderful approach to his customer hit the NY area by the Dolan family. First they ruined Madison Square Garden, forced the Knicks right through the gutter and into the sewer, allowed sexual harassment in the locker room and no go after the simple things in life...watching the Food Network in the comfort of the home.

At midnight last night, they and Scripps could not come to agreement on a new deal and the consumer took the hit.

Last night Scripps had a banner across the screen to call Cablevision and this morning the channel has it's own propanganda on the screen.

Jfood suggests everyone call Cablevision and start looking elsewhere for service to the home. Jfood for one will be calling ATT to get a time to switch on Monday.

[KTinNYC]

Amen, sir. As a Knick's fan I've been sick for nearly a decade.

[Shane Greenwood]

On FN's homepage they have a link to this site with appeals to rally the audience to put pressure on Cablevision.

http://www.ilovefoodnetwork.com/categ...

[lucyis]

I hope Food is available again soon. It is the company that owns both Food and HGTV, Scripps, that is holding out, according to the Cablevision message. I wish we could just subscribe to the networks we want. I was thinking I could trade with someone who watches YES and ESPN. They can have mine and I'll take their TFN and HGTV.

[iluvcookies]

I'd glady give up about 53 other channels (Soccer, MTV in Spanish and ESPN all up for grabs here! You can even have Spike TV, I already own all the James Bond movies on DVD)
Just give me DDD and Unwrapped please.

[jfood]

53 may be conservative...get rid of all the reality crap, the voyeur crap, the sexist crap...

Wow we'd have about 20 channels plus the Scripps stuff.

[iluvcookies]

53 was arbitrary... I agree with you wholeheartedly about the crap on many other channels.Thankfully we still have Create and Travel Channel for food/cooking entertainment. So I can have Man v Food but not DDD...

Just hoping I can get our co-op to put the FIOS/DirecTV dish on the roof as it's the only other option in our area.

[jfood]

jfood understood the 53 was arbitrary, just trying to point out how much crap we are paying for.

jfood would prefer each customer paying for what they ask to receive.

[iluvcookies]

a la carte cable... such a lovely idea
(no pun intended, we are talking about the Food Network after all:)

[goodhealthgourmet]

one exception re: the reality crap. gotta keep Bravo for Top Chef!

[goodhealthgourmet]

yup. i used to live in Jersey, and all of my friends back there who have Cablevision are flipping out about it this morning.

those of us who have Time Warner are in danger of losing several Fox-owned networks due to a similar dispute....fans of Hell's Kitchen certainly won't be happy about that.

[iluvcookies]

Just heard that the Fox/Time Warner dispute was settled today. Hope Cablevision and Scripps can work this out as well.

[jfood]

Yes but management at TW has 2 brain cells to rub together. jfood only hopes there are some available on Ebay for the management of Cablevision

[sbp]

Cablevision, the brain trust that brought us Isaiah Thomas with the Knicks!

[annl]

In NJ as well. Cablevision stopped carrying the channels at midnight.

[sibeats]

Cablevision is running a message on the Food Network channel basically saying that the FN is being unreasonable in their demands and they hope that they can work something out...I can't imagine it being a very good business decision for the FN to go off the air in NY, NJ & CT...but I'm sure we don't have all the real facts here either....

[Shane Greenwood]

Can't imagine this will go on too long. No way they are going stay off the air in the biggest media market.

[iluvcookies]

Shane, you are probaly very correct here. I think the big question is how much more will Cablevision charge us when the do go back on the air?

sibeats..so now Scripps is getting ZERO from Cablevision... how this makes any sense is beyond me.

[classylady]

In CT they stop carrying the channels as of this afternoon.

[sibeats]

I just read the same thing...Cablevision is no longer carrying FN or HGTV...as of last night at midnight! WTF??? Sounds like they wanted more compensation from Cablevision....well that's a bite in the ass...