Nexstar has filed suit against Time Warner Cable for
copyright infringement in a Northern Texas District Court over TWC's
importation of its signals into distant markets to substitute for Hearst TV
stations that have gone dark there due to a retrans fight with TWC.
According to a summary of the court docket, Nexstar has also
filed a temporary restraining order to block the transmissions.
Nexstar last week asked the FCC to force TWC to stop
importing three of its stations into markets hundreds of miles away as substitutes
for Hearst TV stations it is no longer carrying in those markets due to an
ongoing retrans impasse. The FCC has yet to weigh in.
The cable operator claims that it is doing nothing wrong.
"Time Warner Cable's retransmission of Nexstar's
signals is fully authorized by the retransmission consent agreement between the
parties and allows us to seamlessly continue carriage of the network
programming that Hearst Broadcasting pulled from our systems in an attempt to
force consumers to pay more for it," said Time Warner Cable in a statement
Tuesday. "This carriage assures our customers of continued access to the
upcoming Olympics coverage and other important programming. We are disappointed
that Nexstar is working to assist and expand Hearst's leverage against us and
our customers by bringing this suit. We are confident that we are operating
within our rights and the law and will continue to fight for our customers
against this aggressive and coercive broadcaster behavior."
