YES, Cablevision reach deal in cable warNew York (AP) — The YES Network and Cablevision reached an interim deal Wednesday, resolving a year-old dispute that threatened to wipe out another season of New York Yankees’ telecasts for 3 million viewers.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the agreement at Gracie Mansion. It followed two weeks of meetings between sides that had refused to sit in the same room for months.
“It’s a great thing for Yankees’ fans, and it’s really great for my wife,” said Yankees coach Don Zimmer, who lives in a Westchester area serviced by Cablevision. “She was just sick that she couldn’t watch our games last year. She’ll be thrilled, because now she can see me every night.”
Details for consumers were still being worked out. “We ask you to be patient on details,” Cablevision Systems Corp. chairman Jim Dolan said.
“The two parties have today reached a one-year interim agreement, effective March 31 — the start of the baseball season,” said Bloomberg, who earlier this week helped orchestrate the settlement of a strike by Broadway musicians.
If no long-term deal is worked out over the next year, the sides will submit to binding arbitration on April 1, 2004.
Bloomberg had urged both sides to resolve their differences before the start of another baseball season. Cablevision had refused to carry the YES Network on its cable systems since its debut last April.
In late February, the combatants agreed to mediation by Gerald Levin, former chief executive officer of AOL-Time Warner Inc., and Richard Aurelio, the founder of New York One News.
YES has exclusive rights to most Yankees games. The battle over broadcasting those games cost each side tens of millions of dollars.
“It’s an agreement for the fans,” YES CEO Leo Hindery said.
YES insisted on being carried on basic cable, a request that 35 regional cable companies with five million customers agreed to. Cablevision instead wanted to make YES a premium network and charge subscribers $2 a month.
The YES Network lost more than $60 million in subscriber fees, and tens of millions more in advertising. Cablevision lost 39,400 subscribers last year.
YES is owned by YankeeNets, which owns the Yankees, the New Jersey Nets and the New Jersey Devils. The network, in addition to airing the Yankees and the Nets, also broadcasts Seton Hall basketball.
The YES Network went on the air last April. Cablevision owns Madison Square Garden, the MSG Network, and the New York Knicks and Rangers; before YES debuted, the Yankees appeared on MSG.
