Will I Get To Watch The World Series?

I'm a Cablevision customer. That means I don't get Fox while News Corporation and Cablevision haggle over fees for retransmitting the Fox broadcast signal. After last year's Satanic Series I actually want to watch the World Series this year. The Rangers vanquished the team I hate most: the Yankees; the Giants vanquished the team I hate the second-most: the Phillies.

What I see here are two greedy corporations fighting over who gets more money. News Corporation simply wants more for allowing Cablevision to retransmit the Fox schedule. Cablevision doesn't want to pay that price. In the end, customers like me get screwed. If News Corporation gets its way, Cablevision simply passes the higher cost onto us. If News Corporation doesn't get its way, the blackout continues and I can't watch the World Series.

News Corporation now suggested that those of us that want to watch the World Series do one of two things:

1. Switch providers to one that currently carries Fox
2. Buy an antenna (and a converter box if need be)

I see big problems with both these options:

1. Nothing prevents News Corporation from having similar disputes with other such providers in the future
2. News Corporation is reminding us that if we don't have cable or satellite then Fox content is available to us for free and they're wanting to charge us for something that we can easily get to free

Like I said, in the end, it's the consumer that gets screwed; not the corporations. The article in The New York Times indicates that Cablevision is hoping for government intervention through any one of several possible options including binding arbitration, the FCC forcing News Corporation to put Fox back on the air on Cablevision while the dispute is resolved, or through federal legislation regulating the carriage of broadcast signals.

While I'm not a Giants fan or Rangers fan, I still want to watch this World Series, and as long as this dispute continues I'll have to listen to the games on the radio if I want to follow the World Series live. If Fox isn't back by the day the World Series starts I might well call and complain and see what happens.

And if it were the Mets in this year's World Series, well then, I'd be angry beyond belief.