Cable Providers Continue to Screw Customers

With the news that Fox and Time Warner have finally come to an agreement about keeping one of our remaining free stations available to consumers, Cablevision has taken a separate approach and removed the Food Network and HGTV from its lineup due to their inability to reach a new agreement with the networks’ owner Scripps Networks.

As a Cablevision subscriber, I am deeply frustrated with Cablevision’s decision to not renew its contract, despite the fact that it continues to say that Scripps is being unreasonable in its demands for broadcasting fees.  The Food Network has been one of the fastest growing cable networks over the last five years and HGTV has also shown a steady rise, which accounts for the biggest reason why Scripps is looking to cash in further on its ownership of the two networks.  While it may be unreasonable, Cablevision is the one that looks bad in this case.

Cable subscribers pay a monthly fee in order to watch these stations.  Certainly there are people out there who watch the Smithsonian Channel HD, Speed Channel HD and SyFy HD, but there are many more consumers who are trying to tune into the Food Network and HGTV and Cablevision is now telling them to suck it up and wait.  Unfortunately, there has been little media coverage of the issue and therefore the fight remains in a standstill.

The previous agreement expired on December 31st, 2009 and two days into the new year Cablevision customers remain without these two stations.  Ironically, subscribers to Cablevision’s Optimum Online can still watch full episodes of many shows from these two networks on the internet, however, this should not be the only way to watch these programs.  I have previously been tempted to switch my television broadcast provider to either DirecTV, Dish Network or AT&T’s U-Verse (Verizon’s FiOS is not available in my area, conveniently) and the dispute between Cablevision and Scripps is just one more reason to jump ship.

Despite the fact that there are other possibilities to deliver channels to my television (satellite and broadband from the phone companies), the cable television industry is a blatant monopoly that only hurts consumers.  I cannot get Time Warner or Comcast even if I wanted to and am essentially stuck with Cablevision, a company that continues to put itself before its customers.