King, Israel urge arbitration in Fox-Cablevision dispute

As a standoff between Fox and Cablevision continued over retransmission fees, Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) said Wednesday both companies should "submit to a binding arbitration" before the News Corp. subsidiary pulls WNYW/5 and WWOR/9 off of the cable system this weekend.

Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) also told Reuters Wednesday that both companies should go to binding arbitration in the dispute. "I want them to work it out without holding my constituents hostage," he said.

In a statement, King said he was "increasingly concerned that this [Oct. 15] deadline may pass without a resolution," and that sports programming would be dropped this weekend -- a reference to the National League baseball championships and the Giants-Lions football game on Sunday. (The Yankees' ALCS series will air on TBS.)

The dispute involves the fees that the broadcaster wants from Cablevision for it to carry both stations -- so-called retransmission fees.

"[On Tuesday] I called on News Corp. and Cablevision to resolve their differences and reach a contract by Oct. 15 so that broadcast programming -- particularly baseball playoffs and key NFL football games distributed on News Corp. broadcast channels -- would not be interrupted or pulled from customer homes as part of a negotiating tact once that deadline is reached," King said in his statement.

King's spokesman said in an e-mail that "the Congressman has spoken to both sides but does not want to comment beyond that at this time."

Cablevision declined to comment. A Fox spokesperson also declined to comment. Cablevision owns Newsday.