Mediacom Communications is grappling with Google Fiber, upgrading networks to 10G and exploring its entrance into mobile. But the status and future of the rural-focused cable operator wasn’t the central attraction of Sunday night’s 60 Minutes profile of Mediacom Founder, Chairman and CEO Rocco Commisso. Billed as an “only in America” story, the profile traces Commisso’s move from southern Italy to the Bronx as a young boy and the tenacity and “hustle” that drove him to become a top exec in the U.S. cable industry with a net worth of about $8 billion. More recently, Commisso reconnected with his roots and the owner’s box of ACF Fiorentina in Florence, the Italian pro soccer team Commisso acquired three years ago for a reported bargain price of around $170 million.
The carriage agreement includes retransmission consent for 12 Tegna-owned stations in Mediacom markets.
Mediacom Communications said Tuesday evening it reached a retransmission consent deal with Nexstar Media Group, avoiding a blackout of the latter’s TV stations, since the old deal was scheduled to expire at midnight. Mediacom’s agreement comes hours after Nexstar reached similar retransmission consent deals with Comcast and Frontier Communications.
The Sioux Falls, S.D., Fox affiliate returns after more than two years.
Mediacom Communications announced it has reached a new carriage agreement with Nexstar Broadcasting Group. The deal gives Mediacom retransmission consent rights to Nexstar stations located within the company’s national footprint. Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed. Mediacom is the fifth largest cable operator in the U.S. serving more than 1.3 million customers.
Entertainment Studios Inc. has signed a multiyear distribution agreement with Mediacom Communications for two of its Entertainment Studios Networks HD cable television networks: Comedy.TV and Pets.TV. Original programs featured on Comedy.TV include Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, Comedy.TV, Who Wants to Date a Comedian and the sitcoms Mr. Box Office and The First Family. Original […]
Exclusives
Cable operator Mediacom Communications files a rulemaking petition at the FCC that would ban stations from pulling their signals from MVPDs after expiration of a retrans license if the stations isn’t available over the air or by streaming to 90% of its market.
Mediacom Communications announced Thursday that it reached a carriage agreement with Granite Broadcasting Corp. covering KBJR Duluth, Minn.; WISE Fort Wayne, Ind.; and WEEK Peoria, Ill. The Granite stations, which went dark on Mediacom systems on June 1, will be immediately reinstated on the Mediacom channel lineup in the markets where Granite operates the primary network affiliate. “We thank our customers for their patience and continued loyalty as we worked to reach a new contract with Granite Broadcasting,” said Ed Pardini, Mediacom’s SVP of field operations.
KBJR (NBC-MNT) Duluth, Minn.; WISE (NBC-MNT) Fort Wayne, Ind.; and WEEK (NBC) Peoria, Ill., go dark on Mediacom systems after a retrans contract expired with no new deal in place.
Fox announced Thursday that its new national sports network — Fox Sports 1 — is set to bow Saturday with all major cable, satellite and telco TV operators, including late holdouts DirecTV, Dish Network and Time Warner Cable. FS1 will be distributed to about 90 million U.S. households, according to Fox.
KCCI, Mediacom Come To Retrans Deal
A last-second retransmission consent deal struck Thursday between cable provider Mediacom Communications and Hearst Television means programming on Hearst’s Des Moines, Iowa, CBS affiliate was not interupted.
As of 6 p.m. ET Wednesday, LIN stations were off the air in Eastern and Central timezone Mediacom markets because the MSO and broadcaster’s retrans pact had expired. One exception is WVBT and WAVY in the Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News, Va., market, where an extension was granted until Sept. 7 because of Hurricane Irene.
LIN Fox affiliate WALA and CW affil WFNA Mobile, Ala.-Pensacola, Fla., are displaying a ticker message directed at local cable TV customers of Mediacom, saying the stations’ retransmission consent contract with the cable provider is set to expire on Wednesday, Aug. 31, at 5 p.m. and if the companies don’t have a new retransmission deal by then, Mediacom will be required to drop the two signals.
The new two-year retransmission consent agreement between the broadcaster and the cable operator covers 22 stations in 16 markets.
