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MIKE REYNOLDS
Staring at deadlines impacting a half-dozen markets, including its home base of Philadelphia, Comcast at presstime was continuing to negotiate a retransmission consent deal with Walt Disney for carriage of ABC stations.
While a recent extension between Comcast systems and ABC stations reaching 3 million customers in Philadelphia, northern New Jersey, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toledo, Ohio, and Flint, Mich., was set to expire at midnight Oct. 29, the MSO didn't anticipate a blackout.
"We're still talking and are confident a deal will be reached," says a Comcast spokeswoman. "We will not pull the signal."
An ABC spokesman says many of the same issues that led to the much-ballyhooed contretemps between Disney and Time Warner Cable in New York last May are on the table: the migration of Disney Channel from premium to basic; carriage for Toon Disney and 24-hour soap opera channel SoapNet; and better positioning and rate increases for ESPN networks.
Additionally, she says Disney wants "non-discriminatory standard for new technical platforms."
The differences, combined with Disney's access concerns stemming from the proposed AOL Time Warner merger, led to the pulling of WABC-TV by Time Warner in New York in May. Subsequent to the blackout, the companies reached a seven-year accord.
Comcast's pact with WPVI-TV, the ABC-owned-and-operated station in Philadelphia, and other stations actually expired Dec. 31, 1999 but was extended to Oct. 15 during the period when Disney was also negotiating retransmission consent with Time Warner Cable in New York and other markets. The parties extended the deadline a couple of weeks ago.
"That's two times in six months they have gotten in this kind of fight," says Comcast president Brian Roberts. "My point is there they go again. I think they are sort of trying to scare the customers."
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