Talk about strange bedfellows.
I did a double-take the other night while watching Fox 5 New York’s News at 10: The sports segment was sponsored by iO TV — the cable TV service from Cablevision Systems.
Just over a week ago, Fox and Cablevision were at each other’s throats. The two sides were blasting each other daily (Cablevision called News Corp. “greedy”; News Corp. called Cablevision “hypocrites”) over the course of their two-week retrans feud (see Cablevision, Fox End Retrans Stalemate).
Did the enemies kiss and make up that fast? Well, not exactly — sources tell me Cablevision’s Fox 5 sports sponsorship was completely separate from the broader dispute between the two sides.
Cablevision signed the sponsorship deal with WNYW in August for the 2010-11 NFL season, and the iO TV promos began running in September.
Note that Verizon continues to sponsor WNBC’s “FiOS Sports Desk” segment on its late newscast — and FiOS is Cablevision’s real nemesis.
