ABC Almost Pulls the Plug on the Oscars--and Dies a Little More

My 84-year-old mother, a cantankerous person, is a Cablevision subscriber who I contacted minutes before the Oscar ceremonies were to commence for a man-on-the-street reaction to ABC's decision to pull the program because of its dispute with her cable provider. Although irate about losing the Food Channel not long ago, she turned out to be sanguine about the Oscars: "What kind of idiot would watch that? You have to do it with 3-D glasses. I already have a headache."

I briefly tried to wade in before making a quick retreat, and, then, politely asked if she was still suffering the loss of the Food Channel: "You fool, it's back. It's been back for weeks. They just do this to make people mad. But it all means nothing. Nobody is serious."

My mother is generally right, if seldom pleasant, and, indeed, within minutes of the Oscars starting, ABC was running a bulletin across the bottom of the broadcast announcing that it had settled with Cablevision.

Both sides are mum about who bested the other in this contest. ABC reportedly wanted $1 a month for each of Cablevision's 3.1 million subscribers. Cablevision was reportedly not willing to go higher than two-bits per household. According to the Los Angeles Times, "One person familiar with the deal said it came out to about 55 to 65 cents per subscriber; another said the figure was closer to 27 to 37 cents." Nobody, in other words, has any idea.

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