• by Wayne Friedman , October 31, 2010

The two-week long standoff ended over the weekend with Cablevision agreeing to carry WNYW Fox5, WWOR My9, WTXF Fox29, Fox Deportes, Fox Business Network, and Nat Geo Wild. It allowed New York area viewers to see game three of the World Series.

Terms were not disclosed -- but Cablevision wasn't happy with the deal it made.

In a company statement, Cablevision 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.   Cablevision thanks its customers for understanding the reasons for the dispute and for staying with us.  We are also grateful to the 175 government leaders who raised their voices to urge government intervention and binding arbitration to prevent this blackout.  It is clear the retransmission consent system is badly broken and needs to be fixed.   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.”

Analysts say Fox had been looking for as much as $1 per subscriber per month from Cablevision. Other broadcast networks stations had been targeting 50 cents a month or more for their current retransmission deals with cable systems.