In July 2021, the nation’s No. 1 owner of broadcast TV stations responded to a Petition for Declaratory Ruling submitted to the FCC on July 1 by Comcast that argued the company is in violation of the national broadcast cap for what it calls de facto control of WPIX-11 in New York.
How so? Nexstar Media Group filed an 11-page complaint in New York State Supreme Court — an action Nexstar said it was “forced” to do “because Comcast has flouted the terms of the parties’ retransmission consent agreement and refused to pay millions of dollars in fees owed to Nexstar.” Mitchell Kamin, Century City, Calif., based legal counsel at Covington & Burley LLP, took the driver’s seat in their legal war against the owner of Xfinity.
Now, 17 months later and rather quietly, “Nexstar recently settled outstanding litigation involving Comcast,” with word shared only today (12/20) by Nexstar.
Court filings made Monday codify a proposed order from John Koeltl, Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, agreed upon by Kamin; Wiley Rein attorneys representing WPIX owner Mission Broadcasting; and Comcast counsel at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP that puts a settlement agreement between the parties in motion.
Implementation of the agreement is in process, and a joint stipulation of dismissal is expected to be submitted to Koeltl’s court within 45 days of December 19.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
However, news of the settlement is not wholly surprising, as Comcast and Nexstar on Monday morning announced that a possible “black out” of the company’s TV stations on Xfinity lineups across the country had been avoided. Furthermore, Mission-owned WPIX-11 had been restored to Xfinity services in the New York DMA (in Northern New Jersey and Fairfield County, Conn.) after being dropped on December 6 due to a retrans impasse.
The return of WPIX to Xfinity was a big clue that a settlement had likely been agreed upon. That’s because WPIX’s shared services agreement with Nexstar is at the heart of Comcast’s complaint.
Comcast and Nexstar on Jan. 1, 2020 agreed to a retransmission consent agreement that Nexstar asserted that, in “certain specific circumstances,” retransmission of the programming of a station not owned by Nexstar would also be governed by the parties’ agreement.
Enter The CW Network’s East Coast flagship, WPIX-11. On Dec. 30, 2020, nearly one year after the retransmission agreement between Comcast and Nexstar was signed, WPIX became a property of Mission Broadcasting, the Dennis Thatcher-led company that earned the opportunity to buy the station after Nexstar transferred its option to Mission.
However, upon closing Mission entered into a local marketing and sales agreement with Nexstar, allowing it to operate several aspects of WPIX’s operations. Comcast protested, calling the WPIX JSA relationship nothing more than a “sham” that puts Nexstar out of compliance with the FCC’s national ownership cap. Comcast also argued that because it has negotiated retrans directly with Mission for other stations it owns, it should do so in the case of WPIX-11.
The Covington & Burley legal team replied by pointing to that Jan. 1, 2020 deal and the “certain specific circumstances” both Comcast and Nexstar agreed to. “The parties therefore also negotiated the fees that would be paid for WPIX if the station were added to the Comcast-Nexstar agreement,” they said in Nexstar’s defense.
In April 2021, Comcast maneuvered to amend the agreement, Nexstar charged. This, it added, amounted to breach of contract.
Now, the matter is resolved … at least until the next round of retransmission consent talks arises.
