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/ 03.10.2010 1:00PM
Antenna Sales Spike in New York During Oscars Retrans Fight
NEW YORK: And the Oscar goes to…
indoor antennas!--for allowing some viewers to see the early minutes of Sunday
night’s Academy Awards. The brief spike in antenna sales was reported by
retailers when more than 3 million homes in the greater New York area--the
nation’s largest TV market that includes parts of New Jersey and
Connecticut--fell victim to a highly visible stand-off between Disney-owned
WABC-TV and Cablevision.
ABC ultimately allowed Cablevision to carry the telecast, but not before
cutting its signal for more than 20 hours before the program. WABC wanted
compensation for its signal since it said Cablevision is making a profit off WABC
and ABC services but doesn’t pay for the signal. The stand-off persisted beyond
a one-hour “Barbara Walters Special,” which preceded the awards show, the red carpet
interviews, and several minutes of the telecast itself, before Disney and the
reluctant cabler reached a temporary accord.
Meanwhile, a lot of Cablevision customers spent part of last weekend day at
consumer electronics stores to buy digital rabbit ears so they wouldn't miss
the Oscars, according to the Los
Angeles Times.
The Academy Awards typically is among the highest-rated HD/SD telecasts of the
year, and Sunday’s audience of more than 41 million was the highest in five
years. A Radio Shack outlet on Long Island reported their phone had been
ringing all day with inquiries about antennas to capture WABC’s signal. A store
clerk said their antennas quickly sold out--all three units in stock. -- from John Merli’s HD Notebook
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