Once again, retransmissions negotiations between a broadcast television group and a cable MSO got headlines but ran out of drama before any program delivery was disrupted. This time the parties are Belo Corporation and Time Warner Cable.
In a statement to the station’s viewers, Mike Devlin, President/GM at Belo’s Dallas-Ft. Worth ABC affiliate WFAA said, “I am pleased to tell you that WFAA and Time Warner have reached a tentative agreement that will allow the cable company to continue to carry the station’s broadcast signal in Dallas-Fort Worth. This means that we do not anticipate a disruption in service for viewers who watch WFAA on the Time Warner Cable system.”
RBR-TVBR observation: Even though these negotiations are resolved 999 times out of 1,000, we have noticed this year that parties on both sides are themselves noticing that when they trash one another they start getting unwanted attention from people in Washington DC, both elected and appointed. We hope that the time is coming when broadcast and cable work out fair and equitable terms without unnecessarily dragging one another through the mud first.
