retransmission consent agreement

The Sarkes Tarzian-owned CBS affiliate returned to Dish Network, nearly three months after the station was yanked from the satellite provider’s station lineup when the two sides failed to reach a new carriage contract. A new multi-year contract was announcedon Thursday.

The new multi-year deal gives the satellite provider rights to Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting’s 55 stations.

DirecTV is demonstrating the negotiating power that comes with having more than 19 million pay TV subscribers. After striking a broad carriage deal with Fox Networks Group, the satellite TV provider has also managed to keep distributing TV stations owned by Belo Corp. after the broadcaster threatened to pull its feeds from DirecTV.

Communications Corp. of America, the parent company of the new Fox affiliate in Evansville, Ind., and Dish Network have reached a carriage agreement. The deal comes after a months-long stalemate between the two companies that saw WEVV mount a campaign telling its viewers of other cable and satellite choices, while Dish  took to social media to claim that ComCorp wanted a 325% increase in carriage fees over what Dish had paid WTVW, the former Fox affiliate.

Cox Communications avoided a protracted retransmission consent fight with broadcaster LIN TV Wednesday, reaching an agreement in principle for stations in five markets hours before they were set to go dark. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced today that it has reached an agreement-in-principle with Comcast Corp. for a multiyear agreement for the continued carriage of 36 stations in 22 markets owned and/or operated by Sinclair or to which Sinclair provides sales services.

Time Warner Cable’s North Carolina news operation, News 14 will produce  newscasts at 6:30 a.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. next year for Sinclair’s WXLV Greensboro as part of the recent retransmission consent agreement.

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.

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.

Thousands of Time Warner Cable subscribers in eastern Oneida County and Herkimer County, N.Y., once again have access to WKTV and its NBC programming. The stations parent company, Smith Media, and TWC reached an agreement on a new long-term retransmission contract at about 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Dish Network has reached a new programming agreement with Chambers Communications Corp., restoring KEZI Eugene, KDRV Medford and KOHD Bend that had been missing from its lineup since mid-December.

Insight Communications and Raycom Media reached a three-year retransmission agreement covering three of Raycom’s stations on the cable operator’s systems in Kentucky and Indiana.

Hearst Television announced Thursday afternoon that a new carriage agreement was reached Wednesday with DirecTV. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Hearst’s 29 stations have been notifying viewers for three weeks that negotiations were underway with DirecTV for renewal of the existing carriage agreement that expires Dec. 31.

The new two-year retransmission consent agreement between the broadcaster and the cable operator covers 22 stations in 16 markets.