Faced with an impasse over the value of ABC, parent company Disney and cable distributor Cablevision yesterday resorted to that tried and true negotiating method: slinging mud.
The two sides are battling over how much Cablevision pays Disney, which is threatening to yank New York’s local ABC station.
A cable industry source sympathetic to Cablevision suggested that Disney Media Networks co-heads Anne Sweeney and George Bodenheimer, who are leading negotiations for the company, are butting heads over how publicly the situation is playing out.
“They’re not happy with the way this looks, they’re not happy with the preparations leading up to this, and they’re not happy about having to fight so publicly,” this source said.
Meanwhile, WABC-TV President Rebecca Campbell, Disney’s public face during the standoff, said that Cablevision is little more than a schoolyard bully that’s not to be trusted.
“When I think of our two companies, the word that comes to mind is trust,” Campbell said in an interview with The Post. “Our viewers trust us. When you say Cablevision, my bet is that not many people think trust. They’ve disappointed legions of Knicks fans and their customers can’t trust their service. I don’t think they have many loyalists.”
The comments were, of course, vehemently dismissed by both sides.
“Our customers trust us to fight for them when ABC Disney threatens to pull the plug on their own networks and the Oscars unless we pay them $40 million in new fees by midnight Saturday,” said a Cablevision representative in response to Campbell’s remarks.
Regarding Sweeney and Bodenheimer’s supposed unhappiness, a representative for ABC said, “The only thing Anne and George are unhappy and frustrated with is the total lack of productive and constructive negotiations on the part of Cablevision.”
The fight went public on Monday after Disney threatened to pull ABC from Cablevision’s systems on Sunday, which would mean 3.1 million New York-area subscribers would miss that evening’s Academy Awards telecast.