Cablevision boss James Dolan yesterday showed no signs of backing down in his fight with ABC over the fees the cable operator pays to carry Channel 7, which could go dark this weekend for Cablevision subscribers if a deal isn’t reached.

Rather than striking a conciliatory tone, Dolan went on the attack yesterday at an investor conference in San Francisco, portraying ABC parent Disney as a Mouse House of greed and a Magic Kingdom for everyone but ABC viewers in New York.

“I would have thought that they would have taken a more diplomatic approach with customers, with us as customers and with their customers,” Dolan said. “Our customers should not have to pay for something that other folks are getting for free.”

Disney has threatened to pull ABC from Cablevision’s systems as early as this Sunday, which would mean 3.1 million New York area Cablevision subscribers would miss that evening’s Academy Awards telecast. At issue are the retransmission fees that Cablevision pays the network to carry the channel on its systems.

After charging cable and satellite operators nothing to carry their signal, broadcast networks in recent years have been demanding payment to help offset declining viewership and advertising revenue. Many networks have been asking for as much as $1 per subscriber, while cable and satellite companies have balked at paying even half that amount.

Cablevision said that Disney is seeking to be paid $40 million for ABC on top of the roughly $200 million the company already pays for Disney cable networks like ESPN and the Disney Channels.

Unlike previous standoffs that were settled at the 11th hour, such as Time Warner Cable’s recent dispute with News Corp.’s Fox, Cablevision has been willing to lose channels to avoid increasing rates.