NBCU, Charter Near End-of-Year Blackout

Comcast-owned NBCUniversal said it has reached an impasse in talks with Charter Communications to extend their retransmission and cable carriage deals.

Charter became the second largest cable operator by acquiring Time Warner Cable and Bright House. It uses the Spectrum brand with consumers.

"Charter Spectrum has been unyielding in its demand for terms superior to those agreed to by the rest of the industry, including larger distributors," NBCU said in a statement.

"Given this position, we feel the responsibility to inform viewers that Charter Spectrum may drop NBCUniversal's networks at the end of the year, including NBC, Telemundo, USA, Bravo and hit shows including the #1 show on TV-Sunday Night Football, WWE, the Golden Globes, This Is Us and more," NBCU said.

Since acquiring Time Warner Cable, Charter has been seeking to get better terms from programmers. Earlier this year, it was sued by Fox News and Univision for trying to impose lower carriage fees under Time Warner's deals.

Charter had no comment on the report of an impasse with NBCU.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.