This Just In
By Staff -- Multichannel News, 11/24/2002 7:00:00 PM
Basic Channels Secure Off-Net Series Deals
New York— Off-network series keep heading to basic cable.
A&E Network has purchased the exclusive off-network rights to Crossing Jordan from NBC Enterprises for an estimated $800,000 per episode. A&E will air installments from Crossing's first season in primetime and fringe periods beginning in first-quarter 2003. A&E can strip the series' second season episodes in summer 2004.
Elsewhere, TBS Superstation secured syndication rights to CBS sitcom The King of Queens from Sony Pictures Television. The six-year deal enables TBS to strip 125 episodes—sources estimate the deal at $425,000 per installment—in September 2006.
A year later, FX will strip the Fox comedy Malcolm in the Middle, from Twentieth TV. The five-year pact carries a reported $600,000 per-episode price tag.
Cablevision Announces 5% Rate Hike
Bethpage, N.Y.— Cablevision Systems Corp. said Friday that cable rates for customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will rise an average of 5.26 percent. In most places, the hike takes effect in January or February.
Also, in December, the MSO will alter its channel lineups, and some systems could add such networks as Travel Channel, Turner Classic Movies, Game Show Network, Speed Channel, MTV2, Mun2, Animal Planet and SoapNet. Existing networks stay in place. The price of Cablevision's iO: Interactive Optimum digital service will remain the same.
McCain to Examine Cable Rates In January
Washington— Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the new chairman of the Commerce Committee, in January intends to examine cable rates as part of a broad look at the communications industry's ownership structure and financial health.
McCain, who has complained about rising nominal cable rates, in April asked Congress's investigative arm, the General Accounting Office, to determine why cable rates have been rising faster than the Consumer Price Index.
Comcast Files Suit Against CSG
Englewood, Colo.— Billing provider CSG Systems Inc., involved in a protracted legal battle with Comcast Corp. merger partner AT&T Broadband, was notified that the Philadelphia-based MSO has filed suit against it in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The suit argues that Comcast is not bound by the CSG's existing 15-year master subscriber agreement with the former AT&T Broadband unit because of its own pre-existing contracts with other billing vendors.
Earlier this month, CSG withdrew a complaint filed against Comcast in U.S. District Court in Denver, charging Comcast with trying to interfere in the billing contract CSG held with AT&T Broadband.
Cablevision Completes 100 HD Channel Rollout
06/23/2009Cablevision-Comcast Face-Off
04/28/2009Cablevision Announces 5% Rate Hike
11/25/2002Cablevision Announces 5% Rate Hike
11/22/2002
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
