The Walt Disney Company and Cablevision announced they had agreed in principle to a new contract governing WABC about 15 minutes after the Academy Awards telecast started on Sunday night.

The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal.

But the news came too late for many viewers, who had already made alternative plans for watching the awards show.

Charles Schueler, Cablevision’s executive vice president of communications, said in a statement:

“We are happy to report that WABC Channel 7 has returned to Cablevision’s 3 million New York area homes. We are very grateful to our customers for their support and pleased to welcome ABC back.”

Disney, in its statement, suggested that the central financial issue was being resolved to its satisfaction.

“We’ve made significant progress, and have reached an agreement in principle that recognizes the fair value of ABC7, with deal points that we expect to finalize with Cablevision,” the Disney statement said. “Given this movement, we’re pleased to announce that ABC7 will return to Cablevision households while we work to complete our negotiations.”

Bill Carter of The Times reports that the restoration of service came at 8:44 p.m., well into ABC’s coverage of Oscars, which was “not until they had missed the entire opening of the broadcast, including the monologue from the hosts Alex Baldwin and Steve Martin, and the opening song featuring Neil Patrick Harris.”

He noted:

“The first thing that Cablevision customers in the New York area — who had been blocked from seeing anything on WABC television all day — were able to see was the introduction of Penelope Cruz giving out the first award of the evening for Best Supporting Actor. Cablevision customers had been prevented from seeing both the Barbara Walters special that preceded the show and the red carpet introduction.”

Cablevision and the Walt Disney Company traded barbs Sunday after WABC was removed from the company’s cable television lineups, a consequence of a failed contract negotiation.

Many of the cable provider’s three million customers are wondering whether they will be able to watch the Academy Awards telecast on Sunday night, and some have sought alternative ways to do so.

In an e-mail message to customers around 5:50 p.m., Cablevision suggested that in lieu of ABC’s broadcast, people could follow the red carpet arrivals via E!, the Associated Press and the the Los Angeles Times.

“We appreciate your patience and hope ABC allows our customers to view their programming in the very near future,” the company wrote in the e-mail message. It also said that its entire selection of on-demand movies would be available free through midnight on Sunday.

But that’s no consolation prize for customers who had looked forward to the awards show, which is now a mere pawn in the fight over fees between Cablevision and Disney. After negotiations seemingly collapsed last week, Disney pulled the WABC signal at 12:01 a.m. Sunday and replaced it with a message that directs would-be viewers to SaveABC7.com.

On Sunday afternoon, a back-and-forth emerged between the two companies, after WABC said that it had sent Cablevision a “new proposal” for a contract. “The ball is in their court,” the station said.

A little over an hour later, Cablevision said it was willing to enter into binding arbitration with Disney “in order to immediately return ABC to Cablevision customers.”

But arbitration is not an option, a Disney executive briefed on the matter said. The executive said that Fox similarly refused to enter into arbitration when it was proposed by Time Warner Cable in a feud over fees last December.

In a new statement shortly before 6 p.m., WABC said “instead of issuing statements about arbitration, it would be more constructive for Cablevision to deal with the offer that we have on the table.”

It is possible that the two companies will still reach a deal before the Academy Awards show at 8 p.m., although it is impossible to determine how likely that outcome is.

“I would suspect it’s going to get settled fairly quickly, possibly even today, because the last thing Cablevision needs is all these people calling and asking what is going on,” Derek Baine, a veteran cable industry analyst for SNL Kagan, said Sunday afternoon.

Others were more pessimistic, given how much money is at stake.

If an agreement is reached, ABC has the power to restore its signal within minutes. But barring a deal, Cablevision customers will have to find other ways to watch the Academy Awards.

For many people, the easiest way to watch is over-the-air using a digital antenna. Some customers said they had called Cablevision’s competitors to start the process of switching providers.

ABC has no plans to stream the Oscars on its Web site. Even if ABC owned streaming rights –- which it does not –- the technology needed for such a feat could not be in place on time. The show will not be live-streamed on Hulu either, a spokesman for the Web site said.

Background information:

Cablevision and Disney have been at loggerheads over how much WABC, the powerhouse local station in New York City, is worth. ABC started by asking for up to $1 per subscriber per month for its local signal – people briefed on the matter say that was a negotiating maneuver and the target price is closer to 60 cents per subscriber — and Cablevision countered by offering an undisclosed fraction of that. The companies could not come to an agreement, and the spat became public last week.

In recent days, negotiations largely have been at a standstill, according to a person involved who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

On Sunday morning, WABC pulled the plug. Charles Schueler, Cablevision’s executive vice president of communications, said in a statement five minutes after midnight Sunday, “It is now painfully clear to millions of New York area households that Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger will hold his own ABC viewers hostage in order to extract $40 million in new fees from Cablevision.”

Mr. Schueler called on Mr. Iger to “immediately return ABC to Cablevision customers while we continue to work to reach a fair agreement.”

In a separate statement, Rebecca Campbell, WABC’s president and general manager, said Cablevision had “betrayed its subscribers.”

“Cablevision pocketed almost $8 billion last year, and now customers aren’t getting what they pay for … again,” Ms. Campbell said. “It’s time for Jim Dolan and the Dolan family dynasty to finally step up, be fair, and do what’s right for our viewers.”

The Federal Communications Commission said that it was “monitoring the situation closely” Sunday afternoon, and called for the companies to “quickly reach a resolution for the benefit of viewers.” However, there is little the government can do to force the companies to negotiate.

Disney is under pressure to stand its ground: if it doesn’t win concessions from Cablevision, it will be virtually impossible to push for so-called retransmission payments when ABC contracts come due with providers like Time Warner Cable.

Each side believes it has an upper hand. Disney executives grew increasingly confident on Friday and Saturday as Cablevision competitors like Verizon moved aggressively to steal market share. Verizon, for instance, has begun an aggressive marketing campaign aimed at disillusioned Cablevision customers, according to a person briefed on the matter.

Cablevision has insisted that its offers to ABC have been fair.

Retransmission demands are growing increasingly common, as outlined in this New York Times article last December. The News Corporation sought a similar $1 amount for its Fox stations from Time Warner Cable last December. The companies settled on an unspecified amount on New Year’s Day thought to be near that amount –- effectively setting a market price for signal retransmission, Disney executives argue -– and averted an interruption for the stations.

The outright removal of a popular channel like ABC is rare, but not unprecedented. In a separate case involving cable channel fees, Food Network and HGTV were removed from Cablevision systems for much of January, in an indication that Cablevision is willing to endure the loss of some channels.