Cablevision customers might lose access to ABC on March 7 if the two companies are unable to come to an agreement over licensing fees.

Cablevision customers might lose access to ABC on March 7 if the two companies are unable to come to an agreement over licensing fees.

Cable companies like Cablevision pay TV stations for the right to broadcast their content. ABC is arguing that Cablevision charges its customers for access to ABC content but does not give ABC any of that money. Cablevision contends that it already pays Disney  which owns ABC  more than $200 million per year, but Disney now wants an extra $40 million for the same content.

"For the past two years we have tried, without success, to reach an agreement with Cablevision to carry ABC7. Why? Because Cablevision's position is that ABC7 is worth little to nothing to its business and its proposed offers have been consistently unreasonable and unrealistic," ABC said on a newly launched Web site, saveabc7.com.

ABC is included in Cablevision's broadcast basic tier, ABC said, which can cost users up to $18 each month. "What your bill doesn't show is how much Cablevision pays us for these programs. The answer: They pay nothing. That's right...Cablevision charges you for ABC7 and then keeps ALL the money," ABC said.

Cablevision has a different outlook on the situation. "Cablevision already pays Disney more than $200 million per year to carry its channels; now Disney wants a 20 percent fee increase for exactly the same programming," Cablevision wrote on its own Web site.

Cablevision argued that the increased fees would amount to a "new TV tax for the same programming that is available today for free over the air and on the Internet."

Cablevision said its executives traveled to Disney offices in California earlier this month to discuss the deal, and also held meetings in Bethpage and New York this week, but to no avail.

"We have made numerous proposals, all of which have been rejected. We have asked Disney to continue to make its programming available to our customers while we continue to negotiate," Cablevision said.

This is the just the latest battle between a cable company and TV network over fees. Earlier this year, HGTV and the Food Network when Cablevision and Scripps Network Interactive, which owns the networks, could not reach an agreement over fees.

Scripps is also still negotiating with Time Warner Cable over similar fees.

Fox from Time Warner on New Year's Eve over the same issue. The two companies extended their talks and late on New Year's Day.

In 2008, also battled over fees, and reached a deal at the eleventh hour.