Finally, there's a silver lining in the Major League Baseball strike: lower
cable TV bills. At least in some parts of the country.
One of the nation's largest cable companies said yesterday it would offer
rebates to its customers, who have been deprived of games during the strike.
Cablevision Systems Corp. of Long Island will reduce the monthly bills of about
800,000 subscribers by between $2 and $5 per month - a 50 percent discount on
sports channel service, according to the individual cable plan - to compensate them
for games that won't be appearing on the regional SportsChannel and Madison
Square Garden networks.
The unusual discounts affect Cablevision customers in New York, Illinois
and Ohio, who received Mets, Yankees, Indians and Reds games.
Cablevision's policy won't lower prices in the Washington area, however,
because the company doesn't own any cable systems here.
Several cable systems around the Washington area said they had no plans to
follow Cablevision's example - in part because Home Team Sports, the regional
cable network that carries Baltimore Orioles games, hasn't cut the fees it
charges cable systems.
HTS spokesman Scott Broyles said cable operators license HTS not just for
Orioles telecasts but all the sports it offers throughout the year. Thus, the
loss of O's games alone doesn't justify changing contract terms.
Broyles said it would be difficult to develop a rebate formula because the
channel is marketed to subscribers in different ways by the more than 250 cable
systems that carry it throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Most operators offer
HTS as part of a basic package, while some sell it as a stand-alone pay service
or as part of a pay "tier" consisting of a few channels.
Since the strike began two weeks ago, HTS has missed seven Orioles telecasts.
It has replaced baseball with the Canadian Football League, soccer games and
other events.
Cablevision spokesman Norm Fein said his company, the fifth-largest in the
industry with 2.5 million customers, negotiated a lower license fee with
SportsChannel and MSG as a result of the strike.
Fein also said no one asked Cablevision to issue the rebates, which will
deny the company higher profits it might have had.
"We're nice guys," he said.
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