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Time Warner Cable Accuses Fox of Attempted ‘Hijack’ of Retransmission Consent

Dec 10, 2009  •  Post A Comment

Time Warner Cable (TWC) says that Fox "has brazenly sought to hijack the retransmission consent process" by jumping into negotiations by its affiliates, B&C reports.

TWC made the charge in a Dec. 8 FCC filing supporting a Mediacom Communication retransmission consent complaint about Sinclair Broadcasting.

According to the report, "TWC announced Dec. 7 that it had agreed to a one-year extension of its carriage agreement with Sinclair, which has several Fox affiliates among other affiliate stations in TWC markets. That deal also was up at the end of the year. TWC’s filing essentially claims their deal with Sinclair was controlled by Fox, in violation of the FCC’s good faith bargaining requirement in retrans negotiations."

The FCC filing, according to the report,  "says Fox has hijacked retrans by ‘threatening to exercise veto power over any station’s negotiation of a retransmission deal that does not extract a satisfactory kickback for the network.’ "

–Elizabeth Jensen and Chuck Ross

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