Fox/5 returns to Cablevision

Jets fans who are Cablevision subscribers were able to watch Sunday's game on Fox/5 now that News Corp. and Cablevision have settled their two-week dispute over retransmission fees.

The deal was struck Saturday night just before the first pitch of Game 3 of the World Series.

In a statement Saturday night, Cablevision, which owns Newsday, said "In the absence of any meaningful action from the FCC, Cablevision has agreed to pay Fox an unfair price for multiple channels of its programming including many in which our customers have little or no interest. Cablevision conceded because it does not think its customers should any longer be denied the Fox programs they wish to see."

The deal - whose terms were not announced - also included WWOR/9, Fox/29 in Philadelphia and three smaller cable channels, Fox Deportes, Fox Business Network and Nat Geo Wild. Fox said signals for all stations and cable channels were restored last night.

Scott Grogin, a Fox spokesman, said last night, "From day one Cablevision has been complaining about the fair market price. These comments should not surprise anyone, and they further confirm that this entire dispute was solely about Cablevision's misguided efforts to effect regulatory change to their benefit."

The dispute centered on the issue of retransmission fees - how much Cablevision pays to News Corp. for each of its subscribers. Cablevision said it has been paying News Corp. $70 million for Fox broadcast and cable channels and that Fox had asked for $80 million more. News Corp. has denied that, but never said publicly say what it was asking for.

Cablevision's statement also said that "in the end, our customers will pay more than they should for Fox programming, but less than they would have if we had accepted the unprecedented rates News Corp. was demanding when they pulled their channels off Cablevision."

The agreement comes after News Corp. had reached a deal Friday with Dish Network to restore several Fox-owned cable channels that had been blacked out since the beginning of October and allowed its 14 million viewers to continue receiving the Fox Broadcast Network.

The blackout had previously prohibited viewers from seeing such high-profile sporting events as the Giants-Detroit Lions game on Oct. 17, the National League Championship Series and the first two games of the World Series as well as popular Fox shows such as "Glee" and "House."

Throughout this dispute, which began Oct. 16 when Fox pulled the plug on the two channels, Cablevision had called for binding arbitration, which News Corp. had rejected. In its statement, Cablevision restated its position that "the retransmission consent system is badly broken and needs to be fixed."

In the absence of the World Series, Cablevision had announced a plan to reimburse their subscribers $10 if they watched the games on the MLB.com webcast.