When Tigers Fight,It is the Grass that Suffers: Cablevi$ion & WAB¢-TV Battle Shuts Out Oscars for Some NYers

After a few days of Orwellian-Outer Limits cable hijacking ("Do not attempt to touch your TV.We will control your horizontal") where your default channel on start up was channel 1999, presenting a constant barrage of  anti-ABC propaganda, countered by print and media ads from WABC with their own agit prop, WABC TV is finally off the air.  Although I am a big fan of cinema I am not a big Academy Awards show watcher. At the point, when  I was maybe 10, and I realized that I was never going to there or a part of that scene, the voyeuristic/celebrity/fan quality of it embarrased me a little, and  while I will tune in, I am more likely to watch the whole Super Bowl or sit through the entire World Series, even though I am not a devoted sports fan, than sit through the Oscars.

Anyway, Cablevision may be right, who wants to pay more, or then  again maybe it is ABC-TV, since Cablevision already charges enough  and it appears to be a very lucrative enterprise. I do resent being thrown into the middle of this, between broadcasters and cable companies. No matter what, cable costs will continue to rise, whether the money is going into the pockets of the Dolan Family or ABC stockholders.

What this suggests perhaps is that Cable should be more competitive and we should be able to choose between Time Warner and Cablevision and whoever else chooses to get into the game. Sure, the Cable companies own and maintain the cable, and the cable boxes, that is their industry, but perhaps ultimately that monopoly will be usurped. As Cablevision's propaganda continues to report, we can't watch the Oscars on Cablevision, but we can watch it on Hulu or other places on the internet.

Ironically, perhaps Cablevision and ABC are offering an unwitting harbinger for the future, where all media will be available through the internet, or some new wireless TV/computer hybrid. Yes, as Chairman Mao may have said, when tigers fight it is the grass that suffers. Cablevision has already dropped the Food Network and HGTV as  result of  a battle over programming fees in January, so customers are receiving a diminished services, although our fees aren't dropping. But perhaps as a result of this latest battle, while we will always pay for our media services, the battleground may shift and new alternatives may arise that will be eagerly embraced by customers who coninue to pay and pay and pay for services, while the corporations continue to enrich themselves, and place us in the middle while they are unable to reasonable settle their corporate wars. After all, that competition and opportunity, and not "credit default swaps," represent the true beauty of free enterprise.