WNWO In Retrans Deal With Buckeye Cable

Sinclair Broadcast Group, the owner of NBC affiliate WNWO Toledo, Ohio (DMA 76) announced today that it has reached a two-year retransmission consent agreement with Buckeye Cable. The previous agreement with Buckeye expired in 2013 and beginning Dec. 16, 2013, Buckeye ceased carriage of WNWO on its cable systems.

The new agreement provides for the renewal of carriage of WNWO to Buckeye subscribers in the Toledo market.

In addition to customary terms and conditions, the agreement provides for Buckeye to pay a signing bonus to WNWO, which is in an amount that more than covers the legal fees incurred as a result of a complaint filed by Buckeye at the FCC alleging that Sinclair had failed to negotiate in good faith. That complaint will be withdrawn as part of the new agreement.

Barry Faber, EVP-general counsel of Sinclair, commented: “We are very happy to have reached an agreement with Buckeye through good faith negotiations between both parties and without government intervention to obtain fair compensation for the WNWO-TV programming.  We again apologize to Buckeye subscribers for any inconvenience this situation has caused, however, now that an agreement has been reached, Buckeye’s subscribers can once again enjoy the live, local news and popular syndicated and network programming airing on WNWO-TV.  We wish to thank our viewers for their patience and outreach to Buckeye over the past several months.”