No Fox-Cablevision deal, but talks will continue

Following a brief phone conference Tuesday between executives at News Corp. and Cablevision, both sides confirmed shortly thereafter that they had failed to reach an agreement over retransmission fees, although they agreed to resume discussions Wednesday.

In a statement, Cablevision, which owns Newsday, said: "Both parties have a position, but only Cablevision has joined with more than 50 government leaders with a solution, binding arbitration under the direction of a neutral third party. By now it should be clear even to News Corp. that binding arbitration is the fastest and fairest way to return Fox programming to our customers."

In its statement, Fox said, "The fact is Cablevision does not operate, as other companies do, with their customers' best interests as their top priority. Instead, they repeatedly look for fights that cause enormous collateral damage. Unfortunately, this damage is directly affecting millions of subscribers."

The lack of a deal over retransmission fees means the continuation of a blackout that began Saturday morning seconds after midnight, when News Corp. pulled both WNYW/5 and My 9 from Cablevision, affecting some 3 million subscribers.

Cablevision says it pays News Corp. up to $70 million annually for all of its various Fox channels, while Fox is seeking $150 million.