Hearst, Tegna The Latest To Reach Retrans Deals

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With Frontier Communications still fighting with Sinclair Broadcast Group over a retransmission agreement involving ABC affiliated KOMO-4 in Seattle and KATU-2 in Portland, Ore., and Morgan Murphy Media “pulling” its ABC affiliated KXLY-4 in Spokane from Suddenlink lineups in Idaho, viewers in three large markets in the Pacific Northwest, it’s been a rough start to 2017 in the battle for what broadcasters deem as fair pay for carriage on cable systems.


HearstHowever, Hearst Television and Gannett spinoff Tegna can claim victory in their retransmission fee negotiations with two MVPDs.

Late last week, Hearst announced that it has a new deal with Cable One in six markets: Albuquerque; Birmingham; Jackson, Miss.; New Orleans; Oklahoma City; and Omaha. The new agreement came following an extension of negotiations granted by Hearst to the multichannel video programming distributor on Jan. 1, after its previous retransmission accord expired.

Details of the new deal were not disclosed. However, the timing of the arrangement prevented a blackout from transpiring.

Hours later as the holiday weekend began, Tegna and Cox avoided a blackout of Tegna stations in seven markets, with a new retransmission deal forged between the TV station owner and MVPD.

It’s a multi-year deal, with no further details provided.Tegna-logo

As a result, CBS affiliate WUSA-9 in Washington, D.C., did not go dark — nor did NBC affiliate KPNX-15 in Phoenix; CBS affiliated WWL-4 in New Orleans; NBC WKYC-3 in Cleveland; the ABC affiliate in Norfolk, WVEC-13; and the CBS affiliate in Macon, Ga. — WMAZ-13.