Obviously, the media giant is not concerned with declining ratings for one of its biggest events of the year.  Millions will miss out on the Oscars as media giants pull pigtails in dispute.  In a very public spat, ABC television which is shown to 3.1 million viewers in New York has been pulled from the air on the Cablevision network.  The ABC television renewal is due to a money issue between them and Cablevision, a cable television provider in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. 

The debate over pulling the station revolves around a gap of $40 million which BC wants Cablevision to pay.  Cablevision is countering the problem with advertising messages to customers mentioning that the company pays already $200 million per year for the rights to air ABC and does not want to pay another $40 million per year for these same rights.

ABC claims Cablevision has been charging customers fees for broadcast television but not paying ABC a cut of those fees.

Current Cablevision customers are left with no signal on the ABC station for the time being while the resolution is worked out.  This marks the first time in over a decade that a network has blacked out its signal.  

"We can no longer sit back and allow Cablevision to use our shows for free while they continue to charge their customers for them," WABC-TV president and general manager Rebecca Campbell said in a statement.  Schueler suggested that disgruntled viewers should blame Disney's top executive if the station goes dark.

"There is one man who is going to decide whether New York gets to see the Oscars, and that's Disney President and CEO Bob Iger," he said in a statement late Friday. "We call on Bob Iger to stop holding his own viewers hostage, end his threats to pull the plug on ABC at midnight and instead work with us to reach a fair agreement."

WABC-TV is the most watched TV station in the country, said Disney, which is based in Burbank, CA. The signal, however, can still be pulled from the air for free with an antenna and a new TV or digital converter box.