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I sent an angry email to mr. james dolan at james.dolan@cablevision.com and jamesdolan@cablevision.com regarding how upset my wife and I are and many of our friends that Food network and HGTV are no longer offered on cablevision. Apparently someone reads his emails because I got this response:
Dear Mr Quintano:
Mr. Dolan has forwarded your email and asked me to respond. Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding Scripps Networks. There are several important points that we want to share with you:
Cablevision offered Scripps the ability to continue delivering HGTV and Food Network to our customers while we negotiated a new agreement. This is common practice in the cable industry, and such an extension occurred in the recent dispute between Time Warner Cable and the Fox Network, ensuring no disruption of programming.
Cablevision did not take HGTV and Food Network off. Scripps took their own channels off and they did so without warning. We were as surprised as you were that they would take this sudden action– effectively holding their own viewers hostage in order to pursue dramatically higher fees.
This dispute is about huge fee increases that Scripps is seeking for HGTV and Food Network. They are looking for more than a 200 percent increase for their channels. In effect, Scripps Networks is asking Cablevision customers to bail them out of their financial difficulties. If every programming service demanded such increases, your cable bill would be astronomical. In fact, Cablevision’s cable rates are increasing by less than 4 percent this year, but the costs we are paying for programming are increasing at double that rate.
HGTV and Food Network claim to be in the top 10 most popular networks. In fact, they rank in the lower half of basic networks watched by Cablevision viewers. However, we do understand that it is important for us to carry all of the networks that our customers want us to carry, but we need to do so in a way that does not dramatically increase all customer bills.
The channels where HGTV and Food Network appeared on Cablevision remain available and Scripps could put their programming back at any time while we negotiate a new agreement. We believe it was irresponsible for Scripps to take the channels off, and it is irresponsible for them not to put the channels back on.
We understand the inconvenience this disruption has caused you. Scripps knows that we care about our customers, and that is why they abruptly removed their channels. They want you to believe that Cablevision took these channels off. We did not.
Tell Scripps to turn these channels back on and come to the bargaining table with a reasonable offer.
We will continue to bring you the best quality and value in telecommunications today and everyday.
John Bickham
johnbickham@cablevision.com
President, Cable & Communications
Cablevision Systems Corp.
well… i get his point, so i'll give them that. providers can't bill us for their financial issues. but the fact that there was no clue this was coming….
I am tired of all these people jumping on the money truck! Now that subscribers have had a taste of Cooking and HG, new-comers have been selling anything they can. In the meantime, the demand has made it possible for Scripps, they think, to float big-ticket enterprises and they want remuneration. Do I care about the Next-Who-Knows-What on each of these channels? ……….only just a tad, not much more than that. Do I care whether they've had to equip (and maybe even build) a new kitchen stadium for Iron Chef?………NO!
Their programming has gotten lame; and I've been a fan of HGTV since the first……..when they didn't even have sponsers.
I believe all contributers to these channels have enjoyed media exposure and their businesses, too. In turn, they may want more money for less air time…….just like the “major's” shows.
NO WAY! I'd rather support a couple of new “knock-offs” than to have to pay more per month across the board……….!!!!
Adios, whoever…….
B. Lobb
We need to stand by Cablevision. We can do this by contacting Scripps Networks and their sponsors telling them how unfair their CEO are treating veiwers. We can also tell Scripps sponsors that we will not buy their products until Scripps stops holding Cablevisions customers hostage. Don't let Scripps CEO push us around!
I will stand by cablevision when they reduce our cable rates to compensate for losing 2 major channels. until then we are paying more money and not less for a reduction in their overall product