No Viewer Awards For Cablevision Or Disney

It is said that the Academy Awards are the Super Bowl for those who don't love sports. Well, the comparison may be more approriate then originally intended. Whereas football fans have suffered game blackouts thanks to fights between cable carriers and the NFL Network, Oscar fans may face similar blackouts as Disney's battle with Cablevision Systems heats up. And it's not just the viewers who may suffer; awards-show advertisers face a loss of millions of eyeballs.

A debate over transmission rights is at the heart of a disagreement between Cablevision's New York ABC station and Disney. Without a resolution, viewers will no longer receive the station starting Sunday morning, a half-day before the awards broadcast. Advertisers are understandably concerned as a blackout could mean as much as 2.5 percent of the national audience is lost, a very demographically attractive 2.5 percent. There is much chest puffing and rhetoric on both sides. (And BLUSTER!)

Both the Cablevision and Disney brands are risking more than a few bucks with this scorched earth approach (especially during a major national TV event). They are risking permanent damage to the long-term good standing of their respective reputations.

These knockdown drag-out battles over the fees paid by cable providers to TV networks harm one very important group: viewers. And these viewers, like any other customer, will not forget being treated poorly by these brands when additional transmission options arise in the future.

There is, however, another concern for Disney because it is a multi-pronged conglomerate with all manner of entertainment industry interests. If Disney pulls the plug on New York, it would mean millions of viewers would miss the results for the eight Oscars for which the movies Princess and the Frog and Up are nominated. Both of those films were produced by Disney Studio.