Another standoff is brewing between a local television station and a cable service provider. Cox Communications' agreement to rebroadcast the signal of WAVY-TV 10 and WVBT Fox 43 expires at midnight, February 29th. The disagreement is similar to a 2011 standoff between WAVY's parent company and Dish Network. That issue wasn't resolved until after Dish Network blacked out WAVY's programming for several days.
As I reported last October, such disputes stem from the 1994 Cable Television and Protection Act, which gave local TV stations the right to negotiate with the cable companies to re-transmit their signals. In this instance, WAVY's owners are demanding an increase in the fees Cox pays to carry WAVY's signal. Cox officials describe the increase as "huge."
Such impasses often lead to a TV channel blackout, but not always. In 2011, WVEC's parent company settled with DIRECTV just before their agreement expired.
Statement from Cox Communications
No comments:
Post a Comment