Re: Mickey Mouse BITES Bugs Bunny

[Mark <bostonradio@yahoo.com>]

--- John Mullaney <john@minutemancomm.com> wrote:
> I think this is a lot bigger than that. Time Warner thinks ABC should pay to be
> on there system... 

Well, Time Warner may wish/hope for a payment from ABC,but under the
law which went into an effect on October 6,1993 a cableco and local
stations only have two options : a) "must carry" b) retransmission
agreement where cableco has to pay to carry an over-the-air-network affil
-or-  barter some line-up space to carry cable networks(ESPN2, ESPNEWS,
SoapNet, Disney Toons,etc) in order to carry the network affil for
'free'. (Continental Cablevsion(now MediaOne) secured a deal with Hearst in 1993
which kept Boston's ABC affil Ch.5 on cable systems in Greater Boston
but Continental had to pick up ESPN2 in return.(Hearst and CapCities/ABC
co-owned ESPN networks at the time).....A local station has a right to
withdraw itself from cableco's line-up if a retransmission deal is not
reached..





> ABC thinks it should be the other way around but will
> probably agree to free if they also carry Disney.

The problem is that TW doesn't want to put Disney's channels
into the expanded basic. It wants to keep them as stand-alone pay
channels....

> There subscribers will scream and they will probably back down.

With this being an election year, their screams will be heard loud
and clear, particularly by the US Senate candidates from NY....:)
Look for WABC to return to the line-up very shortly.... 

Mark


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