KPHO, Suddenlink Down To The Retrans Wire

On Thursday, Meredith-owned CBS affiliate KPHO Phoenix (DMA 13) announced that it believes that Suddenlink Cable Co. will remove its signal from the Suddenlink Cable systems serving  Bullhead City, Flagstaff, Kingman, Lake Havasu City, Parker, Payson, Pine, Sedona and Strawberry  on Dec. 31.

The station said in a statement: “Unfortunately, after months of negotiations, Suddenlink Cable and KPHO CBS 5 have been unable to reach an agreement for carriage of KPHO CBS 5. Suddenlink Cable is the only Arizona cable or satellite TV company unable to reach an agreement with KPHO CBS 5.

“Every 3 years, cable companies and broadcast TV stations work to come to agreement on retransmission consent; the right for a cable company to carry copyrighted programs from  the local stations. Despite asking for only a few pennies a day of what subscribers pay for cable TV, Suddenlink Cable has rejected all offers from KPHO CBS 5, yet KPHO believes Suddenlink Cable continues to pay over $4 per subscriber per month to less popular networks like ESPN, USA and MTV. Without fair and equitable treatment, local TV stations will not be able to continue to provide top-quality local news, sports, entertainment and other local programming that is most important to viewers in Arizona.

“KPHO CBS 5 tried very hard to reach an agreement with Suddenlink Cable so that our viewers would not miss any of our station’s coverage of news, politics, weather, sports, traffic, and their favorite local and national programming.”