No Retrans Impasses For Gray With Agreement Renewals Lock

With retransmission consent and carriage fee agreements topics that have captured the attention of the FCC in recent weeks, many tales of “blackouts” caused by impasses between broadcast TV station owners seeking fair compensation from MVPDs who profit from the distribution of their channels have been shared.

Now, Gray Television is spreading the word that it has surpassed “a major retrans renewal milestone.” How so? It reached new carriage agreements without any disruption to viewers.

Gray, which trades on the NYSE as “GTN,” successfully completed renewals of retransmission consent agreements representing more than 70% of its total subscriber footprint among cable, satellite, and telco multichannel video programming distributors, or “traditional MVPDs,” in its current three-year retransmission renewal cycle.

This began with the renewal of agreements with three of the largest traditional MVPDs in the first quarter of 2023, Gray shared on Monday (3/4).

“Consistent with Gray’s history of retransmission renewal negotiations since the early 1990s, these negotiations, while often difficult and always complex, were all conducted without any disruption to consumers,” Gray SVP of Government Relations and Distribution Rob Folliard said. “We sincerely appreciate the cooperative, constructive efforts of our MVPD partners in this renewal cycle.”

Gray EVP and Chief Legal and Development Officer Kevin Latek added, “As a testament to the value of the live, local news and sports content that Gray’s stations provide, we have reached this retrans renewal milestone on rates and other terms that met our budgets and that will allow our stations to continue making considerable investments to expand local news and sports for the benefit of the local communities where our employees and these MVPDs’ employees live and work.”

Based on the successful negotiations with traditional MVPDs to date, Gray currently anticipates that it will complete its current renewal cycle by reaching new deals with a small number of cable operators serving less than 30% of its remaining traditional MVPD subscriber base, primarily during the second half of this year, the company said. Thereafter, Gray’s next renewal cycle will begin in the first quarter of 2026.

Gray television stations serve 114 television markets that collectively reach approximately 36% of U.S. television households.