retrans wars

Some DirecTV customers woke up on Sunday without Fox or the CW networks on their television sets, the result of a failed negotiation with Tribune Broadcasting, which owns or operates 23 television stations across the United States.

The current contract covering 16 TV markets and Tribune’s WGN America cable channel expires on March 31.

LIN TV is warning Cox Communications subscribers in Florida and Rhode Island that they may lose the signals for stations affiliated with Fox, CBS and The CW on March 1 if a retransmission consent agreement isn’t worked out.

Time Warner Cable says it has handed out more 21,000 TV antennas to subscribers of its Corpus, Christi, Texas, system who have not been able to access the feed for NBC affiliate KRIS and three other stations as a result of a retransmission-consent dispute with Cordillera Communications.

This Sunday’s Super Bowl on Cordillera Communications-owned KRIS Corpus Christi, Texas, will be not be available to the market’s customers of Time Warner Cable, the station’s website says: “As we have been anticipating for the last month, Super Bowl XLVI between the Patriots and the Giants won’t be seen by Time Warner subscribers on Time Warner Cable Television. We are now at 23 days since we sent our last counter offer to Time Warner,” said Tim Noble, president-GM of KRIS. “Time Warner refuses to send a counter proposal.”

Dish subscribers lost the Fox affiliate starting at midnight on Tuesday, Jan. 31, when its previous retransmission consent agreement with the satellite provider expired.

The retransmission consent debate is, if possible, heating up to new levels. With Time Warner Cable and the NAB squaring off in public over the company’s fourth quarter results, analysts now are predicting that the regulatory issue may become too hot to handle. Case in point is Wells Fargo Securities’ Bishop Cheen and Davis Hebert who say that during the next few years, retransmission negotiations will be more “brutal” than the industry has ever seen.

The association says that since the cable operator reported a fourth quarter net income increase of 44% and annual profits of $1.3 billion, “it’s time for pay TV’s poster child for skyrocketing rates to come clean on retransmission consent.”

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (D-Mass.) and his House Democratic counterparts are pushing DirecTV and Sunbeam’s WHDH Boston to end a retransmission consent dispute that threatens to keep 200,000 Boston households from watching the Super Bowl.

Sunbeam said that despite not having a reached a retrans deal yet, it will let the satellite provider carry its Miami Fox affiliate’s coverage of the New York Giants-San Francisco 49ers game this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. as well as the pre-game show at 6 p.m., the post-game show, American Idol and a late edition of its local news that night.

The scorched-earth financial battle between Sunbeam Television’s Fox affiliate and DirecTV continued Wednesday, with WSVN blacked out for a fifth straight day on the satellite provider, and no cease-fire in sight.

The Sunbeam-owned Miami Fox affiliate and DirecTV negotiated directly Tuesday for the first time since the Fox affiliate cut its link to the satellite programming service at midnight Friday in a retransmission consent dispute.

Football and showbiz fans in Boston and Miami took a hit Sunday as a carriage dispute between DirecTV and Sunbeam Television left subscribers unable to view the Packers-Giants NFL playoff game and then the Golden Globes broadcast by Sunbeam’s WHDH Boston and Fox affil WSVN Miami.

The Cordillera Communications-owned NBC affiliate in Corpus Christi, Texas, has asked the FCC to find that Time Warner Cable has negotiated in bad faith with it in its attempts to reach a new carriage agreement.

American Cable Association President and CEO Matthew M. Polka went public in support of Shenandoah Cable Television Co. (Shentel) in connection with a retransmission consent complaint filed last Thursday with […]

The Newport-owned ABC affiliate is telling viewers that view the station via Verizon’s FiOS service that they may not receive the channel after Thursday.The two companies are in the midst of retransmission consent contract negotiations. The current contract expires Thursday.

The Allbritton ABC affiliate in Washington says it had reached a retrans deal when the cable company replaced the station for an out-of-market affiliate.

Dish Network customers in Central Wyoming, can no longer view Casper network affiliates KTWO (ABC), KGWC (CBS) and KFNB (Fox). The carriage deal between these stations and Dish expired on Jan. 1.

Dispatch Broadcast Group’s CBS affiliate in Columbus, Ohio, announced an extension to its contract negotiations with Time Warner Cable. The extension came just hours before the stations were scheduled to leave Time Warner’s channel lineup at 11:59 p.m. Saturday night. The extension expires at 11:59 p.m. tonight.

Negotiations over fees paid by cable and satellite distributors to TV stations were largely successful, but in New York a dispute led to a blackout of the sports channel MSG.

The broadcasters says it hasn’t been able to agree to terms with Time Warner Cable for carriage of WCTI and WFXI-WYDO, as the Dec. 31 deadline nears.

The Media General NBC affiliate posted a notice on its website and on-screen crawl asking customers to contact Verizon before the retransmission consent contract expires at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31. Negotions are continuing.

The Meredith CBS affiliate in Phoenix says it’s been unable to reach a retransmission consent contract with the MSO and expects its signal will be dropped after Dec. 31.

Allbritton Communications’ ABC affiliate in Charleston, S.C., says it hasn’t reached a retransmission consent deal with Time Warner Cable and AT&T U-verse, so after Dec. 31 the station will not be carried by their systems.

As many as many as 80% of all retransmission consent contracts were up for renewal by Dec. 31. Most have been ironed out, but there are still some holdouts. And while year-end scrambling is nothing new, this year is different. Rates by stations have increased due, in part, to the broadcast networks’ growing demands for reverse compensation. And some pay TV providers are taking hard lines and asserting their willingness to go without broadcast signals.

WAGM Presque Isle, Maine, said Tuesday that Time Warner customers are in danger of losing CBS and Fox programming as of Jan. 1, 2012, unless the two companies can reach an agreement before the deadline on December 31 at midnight.

In a message to the two cable providers’ subscribers, the Allbritton ABC affiliate in Washington says it may be necessary to pull the station if a deal can’t be reached by Jan. 1.

With its retransmission-consent agreements with several cable MSOs set to expire on Dec. 31, TV stations owned by Hearst Television are beginning to warn viewers in the Sacramento, Calif., area that they could soon lose local programming.

The fees that cable and satellite operators pay television stations have produced big revenues, and some disputes. Now, networks want a share of these fees.

The cable trade group’s comments on the FCC’s retransmission consent rulemaking urges reform, claiming broadcasters are harming consumers with “pervasive collusion.”

The cable trade group alleges that the ABC-NBC-Fox triopoly resulting from the sale would give New Vision Television undue bargaining power in its retrans negotiations with cable and satellite operators and ultimately drive up cable rates for consumers.

The station group and satellite TV operator came to terms on a new retransmission consent deal over the weekend, ending an eight-day disruption of service involving 27 LIN stations in 17 markets. Terms were not disclosed.

Full Channel TV said it decided to stop carrying Spanish-language WUNI Boston after its owner, Entravision, increased its retransmission fees by 33%.

Football fans who might have been left in the dark during the Super Bowl this Sunday were granted a reprieve when a last-minute deal temporarily ended a media standoff that had revived calls for regulators to intervene in TV programming disputes.

The new agreement covers 28 stations in 17 markets. In addition, TWC will produce three half-hour local news program, Monday through Friday, on Sinclair’s ABC affiliate, WXLV Greensboro/Winston-Salem, N.C., beginning in January 2012.

The new multi-year retransmission consent agreement covers WTTA Tampa, Fla.; WEAR and WFGX Mobile, Ala.-Pensacola, Fla.; WTWC Tallahassee, Fla.; and WABM and WTTO Birmingham, Ala.

The multi-year agreement covers Allbritton’s ABC affiliates in Washington; Harrisburg, Pa.; Lynchburg, Va.; Charleston, S.C.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Little Rock, Ark., in addition to its Washington cable news channel.

The commission is preparing to revisit the rules that govern the retransmission of local television stations by cable and satellite companies. The industry will be looking for the first signs of a reform plan when the FCC releases its February meeting agenda on Tuesday.

Time Warner Cable reached an agreement in principle with Sinclair Broadcasting Saturday evening for continued carriage of its 28 TV stations in TWC markets, and said it expects to work toward a final agreement in the next seven days. “We’re pleased to reach an agreement with Sinclair Broadcasting without any interruption in service for our customers,” said Rob Marcus, TWC president-COO.

Time Warner Cable announced Friday afternoon that it and Sinclair Broadcasting have agreed to extend their retransmission consent negotiations — set to expire tonight at 11:59 — until 11:59 pm on Saturday, Jan. 15. “Negotiations are ongoing with Sinclair, and we’re still working hard to reach an agreement,” a TWC statement said.  “We are still hoping to avoid a broadcaster blackout, but even if Sinclair pulls the plug on Saturday night, Time Warner Cable will continue to provide all available Big 4 network programming to its customers. There is no need for customers to switch, they’ll still have access to all of their favorite network programming.”