Hearst Television has reached a retransmission consent agreement with Time Warner Cable covering carriage in 14 markets with these Hearst Television stations:
KETV Omaha
KITV Honolulu
KMBC-KCWE Kansas City
WCVB Boston
WESH-WKCF Orlando
WISN Milwaukee
WLKY Louisville
WLWT Cincinnati
WMOR Tampa
WMTW Portland, Maine
WMUR Boston
WPTZ Burlington, Vt.-Plattsburgh, N.Y.
WTAE Pittsburgh
WXII Greensboro-Winston Salem, N.C.
The stations were taken off Time Warner between 7/10 (most of them) and 7/13
In a statement Hearst president and CEO David Barrett said: “This process has been an important step to insure the ongoing vitality of our local TV service in communities across the country. We appreciate the support and patience of our viewers, advertisers and local communities served by our stations, and we regret the inconvenience they’ve experienced over the past 10 days.”
Barrett said TWC didn’t respond to an offer it made that was less than 5% higher than the last offer made by the cable company. He also accused TWC of staging the stalemate to force Congress to change the laws on retransmitting broadcast signals. MSOs want the right to continue to retransmit stations’ signals during negotiations. If they’re given that right, it would certainly affect their bargaining power.
No word yet on how this will affect Nexstar’s suit against TWC for retransmitting out-of-market stations without permission.
