Cablevision Swooning Because of Subscriber Shinkage
This morning, there are reports of store closings, asset sales, and subscriber shinkage at Cablevision. The reports began with a warning that basic cable subscribership in the New York area fell by 1 to 1.5 percent. Regarding the subscriber loss:
The company did not specify a reason. But earlier this year, it said it lost subscribers in the first four months of the year as a result of a dispute over broadcasts of New York Yankees baseball games... Cablevision is the only New York area cable operator not carrying the YES Network on its systems. The company balked at the fee charged by YES for the broadcast rights.
The relentless advertisements by DirecTV and The YES Network that have taken Cablevision to task over not airing Yankee games must really be costing Cablevision money. Cablevision will also sell its Clearview Cinema chain and close about half of its The Wiz electronics stores.