Cable restored after show begins

NEW YORK - Cablevision said that WABC-TV's signal was switched back on last night for its 3.1 million subscribers in parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut shortly after the Academy Awards telecast got under way.

The cable operator's subscribers had been scrambling to hook up antennas or find live TV on the Internet in order to watch the Academy Awards after ABC's parent company, Walt Disney Co., switched off its signal in a dispute over fees.

Cablevision spokesman Whit Clay said that Channel 7's signal was turned on at 8:43 p.m. The awards show began at 8:30 p.m.

A spokeswoman for ABC did not immediately respond to phone or e-mail messages.

It was the first time in a decade that a major broadcast station went dark in a dispute with a cable company.

As Cablevision customers and consumer groups fumed earlier in the day, lawmakers including Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.), Rep. Nita Lowey (D., N.Y.), and New York Gov. David Paterson said that Disney and Cablevision should agree to binding arbitration if they could not resolve the dispute on their own.

"It is imperative that consumers be held harmless during this process by having the signal restored immediately," Lowey said.

The companies traded blame for the stalemate ahead of one of the most-watched nights of television.

"Cablevision has once again betrayed its subscribers," Disney spokeswoman Charissa Gilmore said. "Cablevision pocketed almost $8 billion last year, and now customers aren't getting what they pay for . . . again."

Cablevision said that it would agree to binding arbitration and blamed the stall in negotiations on Disney chief executive officer Bob Iger. "We remain deeply disappointed that ABC Disney has put their own financial interests above their viewers and pulled the plug on ABC," said Charles Schueler, Cablevision's executive vice president of communications. "We have communicated our position to the highest levels of the FCC and urged the agency to appropriately involve itself in this process."

Federal Communications Commission spokesman William Lake said yesterday that the agency had been in touch with both companies.

Disney spokeswoman Karen Hobson stated that "it would be more constructive for Cablevision to deal with the offer that we have on the table. . . . The ball's in their court."