On Friday, the FCC sent out a letter to Fox and Cablevision requesting both to state how they are meeting their statutory obligations ( “to negotiate in good faith”) over their current retransmission dispute. As Yankee fans are painfully aware, Cablevision and Fox had an agreement that expired on October 15 to carry WNYW, WWOR, and WTXF channels. Cablevision pulled its rebroadcasting of local MY 9 and Fox 5 television, which carries the Yankee games in the New York area, in a disagreement over its payments to Fox.
You can read the full letter after the jump.
It is powerful thing to see the public interest that’s written into the telecom laws being asserted with these two combatants. As a former coworker of mine would sometimes remind us during contentious meetings: where’s the customer’s voice in all this?