In early 2017, the NBC affiliate serving the Miami Valley of Ohio became a Nexstar Media Group property, thanks to the company’s merger with Media General. Previous owners of the station include LIN TV, and in earlier years AVCO and Crosley. For LIN and Media General, a retransmission consent kerfuffle wasn’t wholly surprising. Disputes have also been seen with its current owner. Now, the MVPD owned by Cincinnati Bell is crying foul to the FCC.
Details of the complaint were first shared early Monday by the Policyband blog, run by former ACA Connects communications lead Ted Hearn.
A Nexstar spokesperson confirmed to RBR+TVBR that the documents, which were not publicly available from the FCC Monday morning, were not distributed to Policyband by the company. A Cincinnati Bell representative handling communications for the MVPD, Altafiber, did not immediately respond to RBR+TVBR‘s request for comment.
According to Policyband and confirmed by Nexstar, altafiber asserts that the discussions involving carriage of WDTN-2 in Dayton include a clause that NewsNation be carried by the cable TV services provider as well.
The blog also notes that, as part of the dispute, altafiber dropped both WDTN and NewsNation from its Dayton DMA channel lineups. Why? the MVPD was displeased with how Nexstar was handling the negotiations and how the company was allegedly adding $1 million in new programming costs.
This led to the filing on Friday by altafiber of the “bad faith” complaint with the Commission, with altafiber complaining that it was unable to negotiate carriage fees for just WDTN.
Altafiber also noted in the FCC complaint that it wanted contractually obligated language in a new deal resulting in increased retransmission consent fees should Nexstar convert a shared services agreement in Dayton into a owned-and-operated facility or add a station in the Cincinnati market.
The CW affiliate in Dayton, WDBT-26, is presently owned by Vaughn Media. However, the FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr has all but signaled the end of the “Top Four” prohibition for local broadcast ownership, giving Nexstar the opportunity to own WDBT outright.
In Cincinnati, Nexstar does not presently own or operate any stations, with Hearst Television, Gray Media and Sinclair the main ownership groups in the market. That said, a forthcoming asset swap could change the regional dynamic for Nexstar, which owns stations in Columbus, Ohio, and Lexington, Ky.
According to Policyband, the complaint states, “As acts of bad faith are causing continued disruption, expedited [FCC] action is critical to avoid further harm to altafiber’s cable subscribers (Nexstar’s viewers) in the Dayton [Designated Market Area].”
What does Nexstar have to say about the complaint? A Nexstar spokesperson tells RBR+TVBR, “We have no comment at this time. Our formal response will speak for itself.”
