ATVA Steps Up Retrans Pressure

The American Television Alliance, the consortium of distributors and programmers formed last year, has entered the retransmission consent fight between founding member Mediacom Communications and LIN TV, placing ads in industry publications calling the broadcaster "greedy" for pulling its signal during Tropical Storm Lee, which recently battered the Gulf Coast.

Mediacom and LIN have been in a retrans dispute since Aug. 31 when the broadcaster pulled the signal for eight stations in five states after it could not reach a deal with the MSO, including Fox affiliates WALA-WFNA in the Mobile, Ala.-Pensacola, Fla., area hit hard by Tropical Storm Lee.

LIN had given Mediacom a one week extension for two stations in Norfolk, Va., during Hurricane Irene, but pulled those signals on Sept. 7, several days after the storm passed.

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