CVC or CIA? What Did Comcast Give Up?

After Cablevision signed a deal putting OLN on its digital tier, Cablevision phoned to alert us to Mac Budill’s statement that the 2 reached "agreement with Comcast in a number of areas." So what other areas? Cablevision can’t say. (Please, nobody ever make a bid on CVC-we love those guys!) But clearly, Cablevision was making the point that OLN’s owner gave up some value to get this deal done. (We’re guessing that some of Rainbow’s RSNs finally were able to secure carriage on several Comcast systems. Just a guess, since Comcast had been carrying them without signed contracts…) For his part, OLN pres Gavin Harvey was in a celebratory mood Fri night, finally cutting a deal with the MSO that services the net’s CT HQ. So, Gavin, what did Comcast have to do to get Cablevision to make a deal? "Comcast had to make a massive investment in quality programming," he said, before his flack cut him off. Next up for OLN: trying to get Dish Net back to the table. OLN created a mini stir when it ran a DirecTV banner on its Web site last week. (Comcast is promoting DirecTV now?!) But Harvey is convinced both sides will reach an agreement soon.