Cable service Cablevision has stopped broadcasting some of the biggest TV stations in the New York area because it failed to renew its contracts with a number of leading Fox subsidiary stations before the contracts expired this week. Now the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is calling on the companies to sign a deal and resume broadcasting – and by calling on the companies I mean the FCC is Tweeting, several times an hour, mocking the two companies.
The Major League Baseball playoffs are going on right now and millions of people are unable to watch them due to the contract conflict. The official FCC Twitter account is posting live game updates along with calls on the companies to settle their dispute.
As blogger Danny Sullivan points out, this probably violates the words broadcast along with every game and known to baseball fans everywhere: “Any rebroadcast, retransmission, or account of this game, without the express written consent of Major League Baseball, is prohibited.”
There’s something about these old media rules and relationships that just seem absurd when new media makes so much more possible.
