No "Mad Men" for AT&T Subscribers?

What is up with cable companies?  First a fee dispute took HGTV and The Food Network off of Cablevision for a few weeks last year.  Then another dispute got the Walt Disney Company to pull the ABC signal from again, Cablevision homes.  That blackout lasted less than 24 hours, but regardless it was too damn late to save my Oscar party by the time the signal was restored.

Now here we go again.  The Associated Press is reporting that this time it's AT&T fighting out a cable fee dispute with Rainbow Media (which is a subsidiary of, big surprise...Cablevision) that is threatening to pull the signals of the networks AMC, IFC, and WEtv.  The blackout will occur if no deal is reached by midnight tonight, which is when the current agreement ends, and will affect 2.3 million subscribers in 22 states, including California and Texas.

While this might not be terribly upsetting news for someone uninterested in the next WEtv Bridezillas marathon, it could possibly affect season premiere of Mad Men on July 25.  Right now the season four premiere is still over a week away, but keep in mind the HGTV/Food Network/Cablevision pissing match went on for three weeks, and the Oscars had already started by the time ABC and Cablevision had finally kissed and made up. 

So there is definitely a cause for concern if you're an AT&T subscriber.  Fortunately I'm not, but having been through the other two blackouts and also having received a letter from Cablevision after the ABC fiasco promising to avoid situations like that in the future, I would be really pissed if they were on the verge of stealing my Don Draper fix next week.

It sounds like the same old fight:  AT&T is claiming they want to keep costs down for consumers, Rainbow/Cablevision is apparently saying can only keep those networks as long as they also pay for the Sundance Channel and Wedding Central.  Eventually they'll come to an agreement, but one way or another, it will most likely be the subscribers who lose.