• Multichannel News, Tuesday, October 26, 2010 10:49 PM

Fox Networks kicked its retrans consent battle with Cablevision Systems up a notch Tuesday, firing off a cease-and-desist letter to the MSO claiming that it is encouraging theft of copyrighted content. The source of Fox's anger is a New York Daily News report that some of the cable company's customer service reps are directing customers who call in to complain about missing sports on Fox to sites that offer the programming illegally.

In a letter to Cablevision CEO James Dolan, Fox's lawyers said they may take legal action if the practice does not stop immediately. Ivi TV, for one, has been pitching itself to Cablevision as an online work-around to the retrans dispute, suggesting it buy the $4.99 monthly subscription for disaffected subs, which gets them access to Fox's New York and New Jersey stations and would be a good PR move for the cable company. A Cablevision spokesman said he was unfamiliar with the pitch, which Ivi spokesman and investor Hal Bringman said his company had made in e-mails to the operator.

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