NBCU And NCTC Sign Multi-Year Distribution Deal

Agreement includes retransmission for NBC and Telemundo stations

By Jon Lafayette -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/31/2012 8:55:53 AM

NBCUniversal said it signed a new carriage deal with the National Cable Television Cooperative that covers the media company's cable and broadcast services.

The agreement includes the first retransmission consent deals for the NBC and Telemundo owned television stations.

Financial terms were not released, but NBCU said that getting cash payments for retransmission commensurate with those the other broadcast networks are receiving from multi-channel distributors is a priority.  For ABC, CBS and Fox, retransmission consent payments add up to hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

In addition to the broadcast stations the deal gives the roughly 1,000 independent cable operators who are members of the NCTC rights to carry the Olympic Games.

NBCU has signed a number of carriage deals recently with distributors including Cablevision, Mediacom, Suddenlink and Verizon. As in those other agreements, NCTC members will have access to NBCU's live channels and on-demand content across multiple platforms, both in and out of the home.

"NCTC's members will continue to have access to the best English and Spanish language cable network and broadcast programming. This agreement reflects NCTC's understanding of the value that NBCUniversal delivers to their members," Matt Bond, executive VP of content distribution said in a statement.

The agreement covers carriage of all of NBCU's national cable networks, including top-rated USA, Bravo, cloo, Chiller, CNBC, CNBC World, E!, G4, Golf Channel, MSNBC, mun2, NBC Sports Network, Oxygen, Sprout, Style, Syfy and Universal HD.

"NCTC is pleased to extend our long relationship with NBCUniversal and provide members continued access to their linear networks," said Judy Meyka, executive VP of programming at NCTC. "In addition, we are excited to add NBCU's broad portfolio of on-demand content for multiple platforms to the agreement. We had over 80 members participate in delivering the 2012 Olympics to multiple platforms, demonstrating that members have both the capability and interest in serving customers on new platforms. Including retransmission consent for NBC and Telemundo owned stations is another valued addition to this agreement."