Belo, Charter Square Off On Retrans
KMOV, WFAA threaten to go dark on Dec. 31 unless Charter agrees to cent-per-sub retransmission-consent price.
By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/22/2008 12:36:00 AM
KMOV St. Louis may go dark for Charter subscribers in the market if a retransmission-consent deal isn’t worked out in the next 10 days.
Belo's WFAA Dallas and WVEC Hampton Roads are in similar negotiations with Charter.
The St. Louis Dispatch reports Belo’s KMOV will pull its signal on Dec. 31 if the two sides can't come to an agreement. In a newscast Friday, writes the Dispatch, KMOV said it was asking for a penny per Charter cable subscriber per day—about $1.6 million a year.
KMOV is a CBS affiliate. On the KMOV.com homepage, the station says: “For more than two years KMOV has been trying to reach an agreement with Charter Cable to have KMOV's signal available to Charter cable customers. We have made offers, Charter has not responded. We want Channel 4 on Charter, but effective December 31st, Charter will no longer carry KMOV.”
KMOV.com continues: “Charter boasts in its ads that local channels like KMOV are the main reason why you should spend your money on cable TV. What they don’t tell you is they have been taking local programming for free and then charging you. Charter pays practically all cable networks for their signals, networks that are far less popular. But they don’t want to pay for local channels. That’s not right, it’s not fair and Charter knows it.”
It then instructs viewers to call Charter to complain, and consider switching to Dish Network, DirecTV or AT&T U-Verse.
The warring parties continue to negotiate.
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Same situation for WVEC (ABC affiliate, ch. 13 in Hampton Roads, VA), also a Belo property.
Andrew Dewing - 12/22/2008 8:38:00 AM EST
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