Boston Verizon FiOS subscribers lose access to local Fox channel

Reuters

(Reuters) - Boston-area Verizon customers found themselves cut off from one kind of Thanksgiving bird on Thursday: the Eagles football team. Subscribers to Verizon Communications Inc's FiOS cable TV over fiber network service in Boston lost access to Fox's local affiliate station due to a fee dispute with Cox Media Group, which owns the station, according to a Verizon email to customers. That meant the subscribers woke up on Thanksgiving Day unable to watch Thursday's National Football League game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles. Unhappy subscribers tweeted their disappointment. Using the name "laurie bouzan," one user wrote: "Verizon/Boston Fox 25 can't reach deal and no service to customers. Corporate greediness on Thanksgiving Day!" Verizon said that Cox removed WFXT TV, the local affiliate of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc's Fox TV network, and the WFXT Movies station from its FiOS TV network because it refused to accept an agreement "that contained rates that are not in our customers' best interests." Verizon said it was working with Cox to renew their agreement and restore the affected channels. The company was playing a 30-second video loop on Fox channels in which a woman said: "We are working hard to get this channel back at a reasonable price. Cox-owned WFXT wants millions more in fees, which will ultimately mean higher costs for our customers. Don't you think you are paying enough for TV?" Fox and Cox Media Group were not immediately available for comment. In a statement online, Verizon said that it is "diligently negotiating with Cox for a retransmission deal that will be fair and reasonable for our customers." Recently, CBS Corp and satellite operator Dish Network Corp avoided a blackout of CBS TV shows and its heavily watched Thanksgiving Day NFL game as the two sides agreed to extend a deadline into next week to try to hash out the details of a new contract. (Reporting by Soham Chatterjee in Bangalore; additional reporting by Luciana Lopez in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman; and Peter Galloway)