Yankees: YES, Cablevision negotiate into the late-evening hours BY MATTHEW FUTTERMAN
Star-Ledger Staff
With the clock ticking down to the first pitch, executives with the YES Network and Cablevision Systems Corp. negotiated into the night trying to reach a deal that would deliver most Yankees games to 2.8 million area households.
Both companies said little publicly or privately about discussions between Leo Hindery Jr., the chief executive at YES, and James Dolan, his counterpart at Cablevision.
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"I can't talk right now," said a tense Hindery just before 9 p.m. Hindery spent most of the weekend at the network's headquarters in midtown Manhattan.
Charlie Schueler, a spokesman for Cablevision, also declined to comment about the negotiations.
Both sides are desperate to break a 16-month impasse that kept Cablevision customers -- 1 million of them in New Jersey -- from seeing 130 Yankees games last season and has put this season in jeopardy as well.
However, it was clear Cablevision was resisting Hindery's offer Saturday for Cablevision to carry YES for 90 days at the same monthly rate of roughly $2.10 per subscriber that Time Warner Cable and Comcast are paying for the network. Under Hindery's suggested terms, the two sides would immediately enter binding arbitration to reach a long-term agreement.
