KASA Stays On-Air After Retransmission-Consent Agreement

LIN TV, Cable One Reach Short-Term Pact

By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/17/2007 11:18:00 AM

LIN TV and Cable One reached a “short-term” agreement late Friday night, according to a spokeswoman, that kept LIN’s KASA Albuquerque, N.M., on the air.

LIN had threatened to pull the station’s signal when its carriage deal with Cable One expired Dec. 15.

The spokeswoman said the short-term agreement would hold over until both parties come to terms for a full contract. She added that signing the contract was essentially a formality and it did not appear that the signal would be pulled any time soon.

Terms of the deal -- such as whether it involved Cable One paying the broadcaster cash -- were not disclosed. LIN executive vice president of digital media Gregory M. Schmidt had been pushing for a cash transaction last week. “Cable One continues to pay money to niche cable programmers with substantially less viewing,” he said.