Hearst Television stations pulled from Insight/Time Warner Cable, replaces most with out-of-market s

[T.L. Hughes 753]

Hearst Television has usually been a station group that has managed to avoid retrans impasses, but that streak has come to a crashing end on Wednesday (July 10). Hearst dropped its stations from Time Warner systems in 13 markets affecting approximately two million people (stations directly impacted are KITV/Honolulu, WTAE-TV/Pittsburgh, WLWT/Cincinnati, WPTZ/Plattsburgh, New York, WCVB-TV/Boston, WMUR-TV/Manchester, New Hampshire, KMBC-TV and KCWE/Kansas City, WXII-TV/Winston-Salem, North Carolina, WMOR-TV/Tampa (licensed to Lakeland, Florida), WESH-TV and WKCF/Orlando, WMTW/Portland, Maine and KETV/Omaha).

 

Time Warner appears to have piped in out-of-market stations corresponding with the network affiliations of each of the stations in all but one market that is affected by this retrans impasse: an example is in Louisville, Kentucky, where CBS affiliate WLKY-TV was pulled from Insight Communications in the area, which was also impacted by the agreement as Time Warner Cable handles all carriage agreements for Insight due to its February 2012 acquisition of that cable company. WLKY was substituted on Insight in the Louisville area with WROC-TV, a Nexstar Broadcasting-owned CBS affiliate in... Rochester, New York (meaning that Louisville residents are getting CBS programming from a station 600 miles away from the city). Other stations being imported include WTWO/Terre Haute supplying NBC programming in Cincinnati to replace WLWT, and WBRE-TV/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania supplying NBC programming to Moultonborough, New Hampshire and Plattsburgh, New York subscribers who lost WPTZ; and Greensboro, North Carolina subscribers who lost WXII. The replaced stations were in markets where the respective stations failed to submit non-network duplication notices with the FCC, so TIme Warner found a loophole to the rule that typically disallows the importing of out-of-market station signals.

 

Hawaii residents who subscribe to Oceanic Time Warner Cable, however, have no access to ABC programming whatsoever, instead the KITV channel space is replaced with a message explaining its removal from Time Warner. Besides the fact that they are still available over-the-air (of course), and on DirecTV and Dish (as well as in a few of the affected markets, AT&T U-verse or Verizon FiOS), in markets where there are more than one cable provider (such as Milwaukee and Kansas City), Hearst stations are still available in the market through pay TV. Apparently, one station is unaffected as WISN/Milwaukee remains available on Time Warner due to a side deal with Charter Communications.

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Time Warner appears to have piped in out-of-market stations corresponding with the network affiliations of each of the stations in all but one market that is affected by this retrans impasse: an example is in Louisville, Kentucky, where CBS affiliate WLKY-TV was pulled from Insight Communications in the area, which was also impacted by the agreement as Time Warner Cable handles all carriage agreements for Insight due to its February 2012 acquisition of that cable company. WLKY was substituted on Insight in the Louisville area with WROC-TV, a Nexstar Broadcasting-owned CBS affiliate in... Rochester, New York (meaning that Louisville residents are getting CBS programming from a station 600 miles away from the city)...

 

600 miles away? That's wonderful news for Louisville subscribers, especially when there's another CBS affiliate RIGHT NEXT DOOR. :rofl!:

[trev57 46]

Apparently, one station is unaffected as WISN/Milwaukee remains available on Time Warner due to a side deal with Charter Communications.

 

Said "side deal" with Charter Communications is that TWC has to provide Charter (who covers WISN's northern viewing area) with WISN's signal. Thus, if TWC were to pull WISN, they would also be pulling it from Charter customers as well. Prior to last night, an agreement like that was something I had never heard of.

[Mrtraveler01 737]

Hearst Television has usually been a station group that has managed to avoid retrans impasses, but that streak has come to a crashing end on Wednesday (July 10). Hearst dropped its stations from Time Warner systems in 13 markets affecting approximately two million people (stations directly impacted are KITV/Honolulu, WTAE-TV/Pittsburgh, WLWT/Cincinnati, WPTZ/Plattsburgh, New York, WCVB-TV/Boston, WMUR-TV/Manchester, New Hampshire, KMBC-TV and KCWE/Kansas City, WXII-TV/Winston-Salem, North Carolina, WMOR-TV/Tampa (licensed to Lakeland, Florida), WESH-TV and WKCF/Orlando, WMTW/Portland, Maine and KETV/Omaha).

 

Time Warner appears to have piped in out-of-market stations corresponding with the network affiliations of each of the stations in all but one market that is affected by this retrans impasse: an example is in Louisville, Kentucky, where CBS affiliate WLKY-TV was pulled from Insight Communications in the area, which was also impacted by the agreement as Time Warner Cable handles all carriage agreements for Insight due to its February 2012 acquisition of that cable company. WLKY was substituted on Insight in the Louisville area with WROC-TV, a Nexstar Broadcasting-owned CBS affiliate in... Rochester, New York (meaning that Louisville residents are getting CBS programming from a station 600 miles away from the city). Other stations being imported include WTWO/Terre Haute supplying NBC programming in Cincinnati to replace WLWT, and WBRE-TV/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania supplying NBC programming to Moultonborough, New Hampshire and Plattsburgh, New York subscribers who lost WPTZ; and Greensboro, North Carolina subscribers who lost WXII. The replaced stations were in markets where the respective stations failed to submit non-network duplication notices with the FCC, so TIme Warner found a loophole to the rule that typically disallows the importing of out-of-market station signals.

 

Hawaii residents who subscribe to Oceanic Time Warner Cable, however, have no access to ABC programming whatsoever, instead the KITV channel space is replaced with a message explaining its removal from Time Warner. Besides the fact that they are still available over-the-air (of course), and on DirecTV and Dish (as well as in a few of the affected markets, AT&T U-verse or Verizon FiOS), in markets where there are more than one cable provider (such as Milwaukee and Kansas City), Hearst stations are still available in the market through pay TV. Apparently, one station is unaffected as WISN/Milwaukee remains available on Time Warner due to a side deal with Charter Communications.

 

Looks like all the "replacement" stations are stations owned by Nexstar so I wonder if TWC and Nexstar made some sort of deal regarding that. This is the first time I've ever heard of such a practice regarding replacing an over-the-air signal station after a contract dispute.

 

It also looks like KMBC wasn't replaced with anything either which is surprising considering that KQTV in neighboring market St. Joseph, MO is owned by Nexstar as well.

[first on fox 18]

Time Warner has cable service in Pittsburgh? What station was WTAE replaced with? odd.

[Viper550 268]

600 miles away? That's wonderful news for Louisville subscribers, especially when there's another CBS affiliate RIGHT NEXT DOOR. :rofl!:

 

Tell that to the Shaw Cable subscribers in Calgary who get Spokane for West feeds, and Detroit for East.

 

And you thought the Viacom/DirecTV dispute was a bad one...

[tw-804 190]

WESH and WKCF are removed from Bright House's line-up. Looks like Central Florida will be tuning in to WBRE. Why not put Tampa's WFLA on there. It's right down I-4!!

 

http://www.wesh.com/...vz/-/index.html

[T.L. Hughes 753]

Duly noted, it looks like Nexstar isn't happy with Time Warner Cable using its stations to replace the missing Hearst-owned network affiliates, according to this excerpt from an article in AdWeek:

 

Instead of letting all of its subscribers go without network affiliate programming, TWC picked up the signals from three TV stations owned by Nexstar Broadcasting Group. As a result, half of TWC subscribers that might have been impacted by the impasse have access to network programming, albeit from a station outside the viewing market. But federal regulations require cable systems to carry only the local stations for the market the cable system serves, and Nexstar is refusing to play the patsy. "We believe Time Warner on an unauthorized basis in an illegal manner misappropriated our signals from three markets. Nexstar intends to pursue all legal and regulatory remedies to cause Time Warner to cease and desist misappropriating signals," a Nexstar spokesperson said in a statement. However, Time Warner sees this as a legal loophole. "We are acting well within our rights, as we have in the past, in trying to help our subscribers through this," said a TWC spokesperson.

[AaronQ 259]

WXII should of get WCNC in Charlotte or WNCN in Raliegh which it is a smarter idea than getting a NBC affiliate over in PA

[Mrtraveler01 737]

Duly noted, it looks like Nexstar isn't happy with Time Warner Cable using its stations to replace the missing Hearst-owned network affiliates, according to this excerpt from an article in AdWeek:

 

I'm curious to see what the "loophole" TWC is exploiting to allow them to do that. Because it looks like they've done this in the past when TWC had disputes with other television station groups.

[effseesee 101]

Time Warner has cable service in Pittsburgh? What station was WTAE replaced with? odd.

 

Comcast has Pittsburgh, but Time Warner has Clarksburg, WV which carries WTAE. WBOY carries ABC on a sub channel.

[trev57 46]

WISN now says that their station will be pulled from TWC at midnight tonight. Apparently Charter has a new way of getting WISN's signal.

[bhratbrat 423]

Oh Time Warner, you silly silly cable company. Just resolve this with Hearst. Seriously this is the most backwards way of getting a local station. Oh good grief:

 

And if you do want to pipe in other stations that are out of market, than pipe stations in that are next door to the market affected and get agreements in place so that you don't have to use loopholes.

[WFTV Channel 9 80]

Bright House in Lakeland/Polk County, FL replaced WMOR with HBO Family.

[trev57 46]

Are anyone else's other local stations taking advantage of the Hearst stations being off the air by encouraging the Hearst viewers to tune into their news? (Like WTMJ here in Milwaukee)

[T.L. Hughes 753]

Nexstar has now taken matters into their own hands (or rather a court's hands) as they have sued Time Warner Cable for breach of contract, copyright infringement and filed a petition with the FCC against TWC for rules violations over its carriage of Nexstar-owned stations to replace the missing Hearst Television stations. Here's the story from AdWeek.

 

Nexstar Broadcasting wasted no time in taking legal steps to stop Time Warner Cable from importing three of the TV group's stations to replace six of the Hearst TV stations the cable company was forced to black out when retransmission negotiations broke down. Nexstar sued Time Warner in U.S. District Court, northern district of Texas, yesterday, alleging copyright infringement and breach of contract for importing its TV stations without permission. Nexstar is seeking a temporary restraining order and other injunctive relief. Hearst's 13 stations in 11 markets were forced off Time Warner Cable's systems in markets such as Portland, Maine, Kansas City and Cincinnati at midnight July 9 after negotiations over carriage fees failed. Time Warner turned around and imported Nexstar signals from other markets outside its cable systems to provide about half of its subscribers access to network programming. Nexstar cried foul.

 

By the end of the week, Nexstar filed an emergency petition with the Federal Communications Commission, charging Time Warner was in clear violation of the Federal Communications Act and the FCC's rules governing carriage changes on the system's lineup. The TV group asked for an immediate injunction prohibiting Time Warner from carrying the stations and asked the agency to sanction Time Warner's "repeated and willful violation of federal law." In an emailed statement, Time Warner said the company is "fully authorized" by its retransmission agreement with Nexstar to pick up the stations. "We are disappointed that Nexstar is working to assist and expand Hearst's leverage against us and our customers by bringing this suit. We are confident that we are operating within our rights and the law and will continue to fight for our customers against this aggressive and coercive broadcaster behavior," the company said. Hearst and Time Warner Cable seem no closer to a new retransmission agreement. A spokesman was unable to provide an update on the negotiations with Time Warner Cable. TWC had no comment.