MELISSA BLOCK, host:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
And I'm Michele Norris. Some of the guiltiest pleasures on television can be found on HGTV and the Food Network.
(Soundbite of television show "Down Home with the Neelys")
Ms. GINA NEELY: So now, macaroni and cheese with a smoky bacon and potato chips.
(Soundbite of television show)
Unidentified Woman #1: It's not all about what you have. It's about what you do with what you have. And in this room, 50 bucks and a little bit of paint changed everything.
NORRIS: But several million people in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey are going without these guilty pleasures - or for some, tutorials; or for some, even obsessions. It all started last Friday. It's because of a fee dispute. On one side, there's Scripps, which owns the channels; on the other, Cablevision, the cable provider.
Andrew Wallenstein covers TV for the Hollywood Reporter, and he is a sometime commentator for us, and he joins us now to talk about this.
Mr. Wallenstein, why can't these particular cable subscribers get their HGTV and their Food Network? What's at the heart of this dispute?
Mr. ANDREW WALLENSTEIN (Hollywood Reporter): Well, at the heart of this dispute is a little bit of industry arcana known as retransmission consent. And at the risk of oversimplifying it, basically, broadcast companies are guaranteed some form of compensation from cable operators for the rights to these broadcast signals. Now typically, what's happened is, that kind of compensation has come in all sorts of creative workarounds that didn't involve paying cold, hard cash. That was then, this is now. Broadcast companies want - no, actually, they need cold, hard cash.
NORRIS: And in this case, it sounds like HGTV and the Food Network is trying to call their bluff.
Mr. WALLENSTEIN: Yes. I mean, in this particular case, you know, Cablevision doesn't want to pay what Scripps is asking for, for these cable networks. And I think the reason we're seeing that is Cablevision is anticipating having to pay some much greater fees for some of the broadcast networks, and this has to do with an even larger fight that just got resolved between Time Warner Cable, a different cable operator, and News Corp., where basically, News Corp. is going to start getting a lot of money from Time Warner Cable as a result of this similar dispute.
NORRIS: Now, the viewers can't watch the networks that they might want to see, but I wonder if all the other networks are carefully watching this power-play, to see how it plays out.
Mr. WALLENSTEIN: Oh, absolutely. I mean, make no mistake. This isn't just about greed. This cuts to the heart of some pretty fundamental issues - not just for the TV industry but the media business at large. I think whether you're in broadcast TV, whether you're online, a lot of moguls are deciding they can't live on advertising alone. And these retransmission consent fees are essentially, a new revenue stream that could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.
NORRIS: Now, I'm wondering if this whole fight runs the risk of alienating customers and perhaps encouraging them to move to other platforms, like Web TV or your satellite.
Mr. WALLENSTEIN: Absolutely. I mean, think of this standoff between broadcast and cable as a duel, where instead of pointing the guns at each other, they're pointing them at their own heads. Basically, broadcasters are pulling signals, even though they know it's going to impact what they get from advertisers. And cable operators - well, Time Warner got so involved in this at such an intense level that they put a video on YouTube showing people how to get these kinds of programs through Web TV instead of their own business, cable. So it's getting pretty intense.
NORRIS: How does HGTV and the Food Network explain this blackout to their customers?
Mr. WALLENSTEIN: It's a PR war that plays out on a number of fronts. You'll see newspaper ads, where they're basically trying to call the other side the enemy. You'll see it on Twitter. You'll see it on YouTube. There is no expense that isn't put out there in terms of making the other side look like the enemy.
NORRIS: Andrew Wallenstein, thanks so much for talking to us.
Mr. WALLENSTEIN: Terrific.
NORRIS: Andrew Wallenstein covers TV for the Hollywood Reporter.