Cablevision suing Meredith over WFSB blackout

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CablevisionThe battle heats up yet another notch: WFSB-TV Hartford’s parent is now being sued by Cablevision, which claims Meredith is engaging in unfair trade practices. The lawsuit, filed 1/15 in New Britain, CT Superior Court, claims Meredith is violating Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act by keeping WFSB off Cablevision’s systems in New Haven and Litchfield counties.


Cablevision said it has agreed to pay for carriage of WFSB in parts of Litchfield and New Haven Counties, where it is the local CBS affiliate, but refuses to do so in Fairfield County, where it already pays for a second CBS affiliate, WCBS-TV in NYC.

Cablevision is seeking to have the court force Meredith to immediately restore WFSB to the two cable systems while the two sides negotiate an agreement, noted The New Haven Register: “Cablevision claims Meredith is engaging in unlawful business practices by requiring the cable television system operator to pay for carrying WFSB in Fairfield County as a condition for carrying it in the other two Connecticut counties.”

Cablevision said in a statement that Meredith actions “violate both the public trust and the policy of the state of Connecticut. Meredith has employed unlawful and malicious tactics, abusing its control over CBS programming to force Cablevision to make the impossible choice between carrying no CBS programming in Litchfield and New Haven Counties, or charging customers in Fairfield County for two CBS channels…It is unlawful for Meredith to continue holding Cablevision’s Litchfield and New Haven County customers’ hostage — especially when Cablevision has already agreed to pay WFSB’s asking price to carry Channel 3 in those areas — in order to extort new fees from customers in a different area of the state who are already paying for another CBS channel.”

Meanwhile, last week Cablevision took its dispute with WFSB to the FCC, asking it to launch a special investigation into whether Meredith is meeting public interest obligations. The move comes just three days after WFSB pulled its signal.

“Meredith Corp. is violating its public interest obligations with its CBS affiliate in Connecticut by blacking out CBS programming completely in one part of the state in order to reap fees in another part of the state where consumers already pay for another local CBS affiliate,” Cablevision said in a statement. In effect, Meredith is punishing an area it committed to serve in order to resolve a business dispute elsewhere. This is an unprecedented negotiating tactic that is harming the consumers Meredith pledged to serve.”

In its filing with the FCC, Cablevision also asked the regulatory agency to deny Meredith’s application for a broadcast license transfer for the St. Louis-based CBS affiliate KMOV-TV in Gannett’s $1.5 billion acquisition of Belo.

“These actions portend Meredith’s unwillingness to serve the public interest in the St. Louis market, were it to receive approval for a transfer of a broadcast license to operate KMOV-TV,” Cablevision said, referring to the WFSB situation in Connecticut.

Cablevision has offered to keep WFSB on its Connecticut systems while the two sides continue to negotiate, but says Meredith refused to keep the channel on.

See the New Haven Register story here.

RBR-TVBR observation: This is a unique situation and will likely set a legal precedent. While it appears WFSB is extorting Cablevision in this carriage negotiation, it still has the right to make any deal it wishes for retransmission. It owns the content that it broadcasts.