Cable Television Industry Contracts

Fox Group Inc. and Cox Communications Corp. agreed to end a contract dispute that has prevented about 400,000 Cox cable customers from receiving the broadcaster's signal. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Fox cut off service to Cox in Dallas, Cleveland and Washington when so-called retransmission consent agreements in those cities expired Dec. 31.

Time Warner dropped the ABC television network from its cable systems Monday, denying millions of television viewers across the nation their "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" fix and other ABC programs because of a bitter dispute between the top-rated broadcaster and the nation's largest cable operator. At 12:01 a.m. Monday, Time Warner's cable systems stopped transmitting the signals from ABC stations in 11 cities, including Los Angeles, cutting off 3.5 million households nationwide.

Time Warner Inc. and Walt Disney Co. agreed Tuesday to temporarily set aside a contract dispute that prevented millions of Time Warner cable customers from watching the ABC television network Monday. Around midday Tuesday, Time Warner's cable systems resumed airing the signals from ABC stations in seven cities, including Los Angeles and New York, restoring service to the 3.5 million customers who were disconnected from the top-rated network shortly after midnight Sunday.

Federal and local regulators said Wednesday that Time Warner Inc. was in the wrong when it dropped the ABC television network from its cable systems in seven cities, depriving 3.5 million homes of the top-rated network's programming for all of Monday and part of Tuesday.