• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, October 21, 2010

The Fox blackout on Cablevision that has kept the network off the air in a huge chunk of the market, led to a massive ratings drop for this week's "House" episode in New York. But the New York Giants game suffered less than some expected -- which may also be the case for the late news on the Fox station.

On Monday, "House" had a .8 rating in the 18-to-49 demo -- down a whopping 67% from the week before the blackout. That decline looks even steeper considering that the show's ratings were the same this week on a national level compared to Oct. 11.

Yet on Sunday, the Giants-Detroit game posted a 4.1 rating in the 18-to-49 demo. That was down 27% from the Giants-Houston game Oct. 10 on Fox -- the week before the blackout. Both games were on at 1 p.m. in New York.

"I would have expected (the decline) to be much higher," said Don Seaman, a vice president at MPG, citing the large number of homes unable to get the broadcast.

On Tuesday, "Glee" drew a 1.3 rating in the 18-to-49 demo in New York -- down the same 67% as "House." But this week's "Glee" was a repeat, meaning that a sharp drop would be anticipated, albeit maybe not as dramatic. The decline in New York was not much more than the 55% falloff nationally.

Cablevision homes account for about 43% of the 7.5 million households in the New York market. Time Warner Cable blankets Manhattan, while Verizon's FiOS has a presence in the area, as do other operators.

Fox's WNYW/Channel 5 has been unavailable on Cablevision since Oct. 16 as station owner News Corp. has been locked in a carriage dispute with Cablevision. Cablevision is resisting paying what Fox is asking.

A snapshot of the ratings for the 10 p.m. newscast on Fox's WNYW shows the same 27% decline for the Giants games. On Monday, WNYW posted a .68 among 18-to-49-year-olds. That was down from a .93 on the Monday the week before the blackout.

WNYW's late news ratings had been on the decline before the Cablevision dispute, so it's difficult to gauge the blackout's impact. Also, ratings for the 11 p.m. news on MyNetworkTV's WWOR were up 13% by one measure on Monday. WWOR/Channel 9, also off Cablevision, is owned by News Corp.

The Cablevision-induced drops in prime time and the NFL are troubling -- and likely causing Fox to negotiate how many bonus spots to give advertisers to make up for the ratings declines.

But even if the 27% decrease for WNYW's late news is less than expected, that could be even more difficult to stomach. The station could be losing some of the political dollars flooding the New York area before Nov. 2 if candidates are chasing higher ratings elsewhere.

New York candidates had booked some of the priciest spots in this year's campaign to run on Fox this week. Andrew Cuomo, running for New York governor, had booked a $36,000 spot in the Giants game and a $30,000 ad in Sunday's National League Championship Series on WNYW.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was scheduled for a $25,000 spot on Monday's "House." Plus, she had booked a $30,000 ad during "Glee" on Tuesday.

Due to rules for political advertising, the prices the candidates pay for particular spots are the cheapest rates. So other advertisers -- perhaps now looking for makegoods -- could be paying double or more.

The ratings declines do not appear to have hastened News Corp.'s interest in cutting a deal. On the flip side, questions about how many subscribers the dispute is costing Cablevision may be partly answered when the company speaks with investors after releasing earnings soon.