On April 1, it was no joke for viewers of broadcast TV stations owned by The E.W. Scripps Co. who pay for cable television services powered by Comcast‘s Xfinity MVPD. A retransmission consent agreement could not be signed in a timely manner, resulting in a “blackout,” by law, of all Scripps-owned stations on one of the nation’s largest cable TV providers.
A little more than a month later, a new deal has been reached.
Just before 2pm Eastern, Scripps’ WPTV-5 in West Palm Beach took to its Facebook page to share that its parent company has reached an agreement with Comcast. This results in the immediate return of all Scripps stations to the Xfinity lineup. “We appreciate our viewers’ patience and look forward to serving them once again on the Xfinity service with local news, weather, live sports and entertainment programming,” the announcement from the NBC affiliate serving a large portion of South Florida said.
An identical message appears on other Scripps stations’ Facebook pages, including that of WXYZ-7 in Detroit, noting that the ABC affiliate and sibling WMYD-20 are now restored to Xfinity.
The sudden plug-pull of Scripps stations was particularly vexing for fans of the Florida Panthers NHL hockey team, as Xfinity dropped WSFL-39 in Miami and WHDT-9 in West Palm Beach while the game was in progress.
For Scripps, 40 stations across 19 DMAs were impacted by the impasse, 19 of which are “Big Four” network affiliates.
