Logo

TVNewsCheck

Stations May Go Dark in Battle Over Retrans Fees

Jan 25, 2016  •  Post A Comment

Consumers in nine TV markets are being warned today that they could lose access to some stations at midnight Friday, Jan. 29. TVNewsCheck reports that Nexstar Broadcasting Group put out the word today in a statement, cautioning that its battle with Cox Communications over retransmission fees could result in a blackout.

“The statement says the possible blackout involves affiliates of the Big Four networks, CW and MNT, but it does not say what markets or how many subscribers would be affected,” the report notes. Nexstar says its negotiations with Cox, which have been going on for more than five months, are continuing.

Nexstar alludes to the crux of the argument in the statement, saying:”Across the U.S., broadcast stations and station groups generate approximately 35% of household viewing, yet local broadcasters in aggregate received on average about 12% of the total distribution revenue from cable, satellite and telecom providers such as Cox.”

nexstar-logo

2 Comments

  1. It will be interesting to watch this continuing battle of local tv groups and the companies that distribute their programming. It is even more interesting today, because of how anyone under 30 is dumping the mass distributors for Netflix, Amazon, etc. It creates an interesting question as to how valuable local tv really is to consumers and to the distributors. Will the cable and satellite distributors see a bigger decline if local stations are dropped? And will prices go down for consumers if local stations are dropped?

  2. What? A group of stations could go dark because of a disagreement over retransmission fees? NO! That couldn’t happen, ever…..

    Oh, wait….

Your Comment

Email (will not be published)