Jan. 4--Cox Communications' 230,000 Orange County cable customers could soon be forced to live without 'Ally McBeal,' 'The X-Files' and 'The Simpsons.' Not to mention those 'When Animals Attack' specials.
A dispute between Cox and Fox has already prompted the cable company to drop Fox channels in parts of Texas, northern Virginia and Cleveland. If the dispute isn't resolved by Jan. 31, Orange County customers also would lose Fox.
It would mark the first time the company has ever dropped a network from its Orange County offerings, said Kip Simonson, Cox vice president of marketing and sales.
But local spokeswoman Martha Ann Zajic said, 'We're hoping there can be some type of negotiation over the next (month) so there's no impact to our customers here in Orange County.'
Trabuco Canyon resident Ron Stocking said he and his wife, Kim, watch news on Fox every night, and that he watches football on the station.
'That's our main news station,' Stocking said. 'I'd be real bummed if I lost my football coverage. Fox is one of the major networks as far as I'm concerned.'
Nationwide, about 400,000 cable subscribers have lost their connection to Fox channels because of the disagreement.
Cable companies need permission from network stations to retransmit their signals. They renegotiate those contracts every few years.
Fox has refused to let several Cox Communications systems nationwide retransmit its programming because Cox declined to add two other Fox channels, FXM, a Fox movie channel, and Fox Sports World.
'We see digital TV giving customers the power of choice,' said Fox spokesman Tom Tyrer. 'Cox disagrees, and they've cut their customers off from these popular local stations in order to prove it.'
Cox had asked Fox for a 90-day extension on the deadline for negotiations, Zajic said. When Fox refused, Cox had to drop Fox in several markets on Jan. 1.
Adding the two extra stations would take up space in Cox's transmission capacity. The company provides 214-channel television programming, as well as phone service and cable access to the Internet.
'We don't have unlimited capacity,' Simonson said. 'The (two extra) channels will take spectrum we don't have just to hand out willy nilly.'
Orange County has a different deadline for renegotiating transmission agreements because, in a previous negotiation, deadlines were extended so agreements could be reach ed, Simonson said.
Such negotiations normally are conducted at the local level, he said. But so far, Zajic said, Fox has demanded that all Cox markets agree to take the extra channels.
'We can't be held hostage by Fox Corporation's greed,' said Cox spokeswoman Ellen East.
Cox hasn't yet decided what it will show in place of Fox's channels locally if Fox is dropped.
Cox customers typically cannot buy service from other cable providers. Their only other option would be to disconnect the cable and rely on an old-fashioned antenna, or switch to satellite television, which recently received permission to retransmit network television.
Trabuco resident Stocking said he can't get television or radio reception without cable. He said he'd consider satellite if the prices become more competitive.
But satellite companies could soon find themselves in a similar position when they have to renegotiate with network stations, Simonson said.
'This is an invitation for (satellite companies) to come in and advertise in those markets,' said Jessica Reif-Cohen, an analyst with Merrill Lynch. 'Obviously, (Cox or Fox) will have to back down.'
'This speaks to control -- the cable operators don't want to be told what to do. But cable is vulnerable to satellite in channel capacity,' said Tom Eaton, an analyst with Paine Webber. 'The real winners here are the satellite TV providers.'
Cable companies do not pay to retransmit the signals of TV-network stations, analysts say. But the networks have pressured cable operators to run their specialty channels, such as ABC's ESPN and NBC's MSNBC, in exchange for retransmitting the signals of network stations.
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(c) 2000, The Orange County Register, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
