World Series at Risk for Cablevision as FCC May Not Help in Spat

The Federal Communications Commission may lack the powers to do anything to resolve the Fox-Cablevision impasse, said Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co. "It would be extraordinary for them to order Fox to put programming back on," she said. The FCC would need to find a lack of so-called good faith in the talks before acting, and even then the law probably doesn't let it order arbitration, Arbogast said.

Examples of a "good faith violation," as defined in the 1992 Cable Act, include one party refusing to put forth more than a single, unilateral proposal to the other party, a company trying to "unreasonably delay" negotiations, and failing to respond to a proposal, among others. "It's going to be tough to find a lack of good faith in negotiating," Arbogast said. "What they're fighting over is the money."