Talks between Fox and Cablevision broke down again yesterday after the two failed to reach a deal to get the broadcast network back on the air.
Some three million Cablevision customers in the New York area and Philadelphia were still without Fox programming as the blackout stretched into its third day.
In a statement, Fox said the two companies met again briefly yesterday morning but there was little progress. Fox, like The Post, is part of News Corp.
“Cablevision’s real intention is to continue making this their subscribers’ problem in the hope that with enough inconvenience, politicians will intervene to protect Cablevision’s huge profits — nearly $795 per subscriber last year,” Fox said.
Cablevision has been asking the FCC to step in and mediate the dispute as part of a binding arbitration process.
“Cablevision agrees to submit to binding arbitration, as called for by more than 50 elected officials from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, as the fastest and fairest way to return Fox programming to Cablevision viewers,” the company said.
Fox said Cablevision would never agree to government intervention for disputes involving its own MSG channels. MSG and MSG Plus recently went dark for millions of DISH satellite-TV subscribers because of a carriage dispute.
Separately, Dish is also battling with News Corp. over costs to carry Fox regional sports networks. Those channels have been blacked out for Dish’s 14 million subscribers since Oct. 1.
Meanwhile, Cablevision rival Verizon Fios said it is seeing an uptick in call volume and expects a “busy week.” One former Cablevision customer, Cira Willson of Rockland County, NY, made the switch yesterday, telling The Post, “My husband is a football fanatic and he couldn’t watch any games, so he was really pissed off.
We’re not happy,” she added. “I hope Verizon is better.”