LIN settles retrans standoff

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LIN Television announced late yesterday that it has come to a settlement with cable operator MetroCast, ending a standoff that had threatened to pull LIN stations off MetroCast systems in Connecticut (9/14/07 TVBR #180). A tentative agreement kept the stations from being pulled when the old agreement ran out October 7th. Those negotiations have now been completed and LIN said the new deal with the cable company, which has some 36,000 subscribers in Eastern Connecticut, includes both analog and high-definition carriage.


"We are pleased with the outcome of our negotiations. Our stations are leaders in their markets and we’ve made substantial investments to bring our viewers high definition digital programming. The agreement reflects fair value to both parties and is in the best interest of the consumer" said LIN CEO Vincent Sadusky. The retrans deal will allow MetroCast cable subscribers to continue to watch LIN’s two Hartford stations, WTNH-TV (Ch. 8, ABC) and WCTX-TV (Ch. 5, MyNetworkTV).