RBR + TVBR INFOCUS
Until about 1pm Friday (3/17) there was a whole new definition for “March Madness” in a large portion of Connecticut that doesn’t involve Duke, Villanova, or a 6-9, 185-pound Arizona Wildcats Center named Chance Comanche.
That’s because subscribers to Altice USA‘s Optimum had been without their local CBS affiliate, Meredith Corp.-owned WFSB-3 in Hartford, since Jan. 13. With no sign of an accord after more than eight weeks, Democratic State Sen. Gayle Slossberg stepped up her fight to play peacemaker by pleading for mediation between the two parties.
She gave Optimum and Meredith until the end of the day before next steps would be taken by Slossberg, who tells RBR + TVBR that a call to the Attorney General’s office was made this morning and that new communication with the FCC was set to start.
That won’t happen now: As of 1:30pm Eastern WFSB-3 returned to Optimum’s lineup in Litchfield and New Haven Counties.
“I haven’t watched Madame Secretary for weeks,” Slossberg says of the eight-week impasse that served as the latest chapter in an ugly relationship between Meredith and Optimum that dates back to the MVPD’s predecessor — the Dolan Family’s Cablevision.
As has become standard with retransmission fee disputes, the blame game started early, with Altice in mid-February blaming Meredith for “yanking” WFSB from Optimum lineups across the Constitution State.
“Despite Altice USA’s willingness to pay a significant increase for carriage of WFSB, Meredith Corporation has pulled its programming from Optimum’s Connecticut customers as it seeks an outrageous increase in retransmission fees,” the company said in a mid-January release. “Meredith Corp. has also denied Altice USA’s request to keep WFSB on while negotiations continue, abruptly removing the station from Optimum’s Connecticut TV lineup, which leaves a small number of customers in Litchfield and New Haven Counties without any CBS programming.”
The key word in that last sentence is “small.” Most Optimum customers in the Constitution State live in Fairfield County, which is a part of the New York DMA and has access to CBS programming via flagship CBS Corp. O&O WCBS-2.
According to Optimum’s New Haven channel lineup effective December 2016, WCBS-2 is also available to subscribers in the towns of Milford, Orange and Woodbridge, Conn.
But, that’s not accurate, Slossberg tells RBR + TVBR.
As a result, she and her constituents have had no access to any CBS programming via Optimum, leaving fans of the New England Patriots scrambling for alternative ways to watch the team’s playoff games leading into Super Bowl LI. Until early Friday afternoon, NCAA Men’s Basketball games shown on CBS were unavailable.
Perhaps a bigger absence to these Optimum subscribers was statewide and locally oriented news and information via WFSB at a time when a major blizzard wreaked havoc on the region. At the same time, business and services based in Connecticut were deprived of a local vehicle to reach potential consumers in Slossberg’s district, just west of New Haven.
That’s why the state legislator stepped up to the plate in an issue many told her was private, or Federal in scope.
“My role is to serve as an advocate for my constituents, and they were adversely effected by this impasse,” Slossberg says. “Even after people said it was a private or Federal matter, I said I had to do something. We had no CBS programming whatsoever in the communities in which I serve.”
Slossberg’s initial efforts involved contacting the FCC in January. At the time, the Commission said it “would be open” to exploring a solution to the impasse between Altice USA and Meredith. But, the FCC explained that only Optimum or Meredith Corp. could initiate any sort of mediation involving the Commission.
By Wednesday, March 15, Slossberg had enough of waiting. In a statement, she noted that “hundreds” of Optimum customers from Milford, Orange and Woodbridge — three of four western New Haven suburbs that comprise her district — had signed a petition started by Slossberg calling for an end to the blackout of WFSB.
Slossberg implored them to seek mediation from the FCC, and restore service immediately. She also called on Optimum to compensate customers for the loss of WFSB.
“Cablevision and WFSB are not completely exonerated in this issue,” she says. “Customers should never have been dragged into the middle of their contract dispute. Both companies should compensate customers in the affected towns for the diminished service they have received since January.”
In prepared remarks distributed Wednesday, Slossberg said, “For months now, people in Milford, Orange and Woodbridge have been paying a full rate for diminished cable service. This needs to stop. Hundreds of people have signed onto my petition, and many more have contacted my office to ask what it going on. They are angry that they have missed sporting events, news and other programming, and that without this local network they have had a more difficult time learning about school closings and weather conditions during recent snowstorms.”
The battle has now ended. But, Slossberg refuses to take the role of champion.
“I’d like to believe that my advocacy had helped to bring a resolution to this,” she says. “I’m glad it’s over, and I hope it won’t happen again. Sometimes the little guy gets what they demand.”
A HISTORY OF DARK SCREENS
Had Altice USA and Meredith failed to reach a new retransmission fee agreement by the end of the day — a deadline Slossberg had given the companies — her next steps would have involved the review of a Class Action lawsuit.
Additionally, she was set to contact the Commission to address an open docket item that had been put aside which would have changed the definition of “bad faith” when situations such as retrans fee disputes — and resulting channel blackouts — arise.
The FCC NPRM remains a key to avoiding future blackouts. For now, the restoration of WFSB becomes the latest chapter in a tumultuous relationship between Meredith and Optimum that dates back to the MVPD’s predecessor, Cablevision.
At the start of the eight-week feud, Altice USA assailed Meredith’s WFSB for proposing “an outrageous increase” in retrans fees. To little surprise, WFSB GM Klarn DePalma had a much different view of the situation.
“WFSB has been trying for months to get Optimum from Altice to negotiate seriously,” DePalma said in a statement appearing on the WFSB website. “But after its transaction with Altice, Optimum is now part of one of the world’s largest cable giants. Integrating large companies is hard work.”
In a statement appearing as recently as this morning, WFSB explained why there was no agreement. “So far, Optimum from Altice has rejected all of our proposals for compromise … WFSB may not be as important to Optimum from Altice as it was when Optimum was far smaller. But we believe WFSB is just as important to you, our viewers, no matter how large your cable company is.”
While a new proposal was finally approved, WFSB and DePalma did not mention during any point of their standoff with Altice USA that this blackout came just three years after a particularly ugly dispute with Cablevision. In January 2014, a blackout of WFSB resulted in an 16-day war triggered by a condition from Meredith that the station be included on all channel lineups in Fairfield County, Conn.
This area of the state, in the far southwestern corner, is embedded in the New York DMA and has long gravitated more toward the Big Apple and less toward Hartford and New England. This was the crux of Cablevision’s argument that Meredith was strong-arming the MVPD, in order to reach a deal putting WFSB on systems in Litchfield and New Haven Counties.
Unwilling to “pay twice for the same network,” Cablevision on Jan. 15, 2014 filed a 35-page complaint with the FCC (in New Britain, CT Superior Court) charging that Meredith was engaging in unfair trade practices. In particular, Cablevision claimed Meredith violated Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act by keeping WFSB off Cablevision’s systems in New Haven and Litchfield counties, unless it could get placement in Fairfield County.
Three days later, the tiff ended, with WFSB back on Cablevision in all areas of Connecticut.
This time around, the issue of WFSB’s presence in Fairfield County could have again served as the main reason why Optimum and Meredith couldn’t reach a deal; if Meredith had asked for “an outrageous increase” in its retrans fees, it could have been using Connecticut’s little sliver of the New York DMA as a bargaining chip that may have ultimately backfired.
The NCAA’s “March Madness” is set to end April 3.
As of today, Optimum subscribers in Connecticut may be a little less mad.
Additional reporting by Carl Marcucci
