News Corp. Says Carriage Fights Cost $47 Million

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News Corp., which reported its second quarter earnings on
Wednesday, said that its carriage dispute with Dish Network cost the company
$30 million in lost revenue.

A retransmission fight with Cablevision Systems cost the
company another $17 million in lost ad revenue, the company said during a
conference call with securities analysts.

In both cases, News Corp. was trying to extract higher
per-subscriber fees for its channels.

The Dish/Echostar dispute knocked News Corp. cable channels including
FX, National Geographic Channel and its regional sports networks off the
satellite distributor for about a month.

The Cablevision fight took knocked Fox Broadcasting off
Cablevision for about a month in October, along with some of New Corp.'s
smaller cable channels, for about two weeks, affecting two World Series Games
and some NFL contests.

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.