BALTIMORE and MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.: Sinclair Broadcast Group and cable company Mediacom have come to a retransmission agreement. The two companies have entered a deal allowing Mediacom to carry the 22 Sinclair stations in its areas for another year. The stations entail 15 markets and around 600,00 of Mediacom’s subscribers.
Negotiations between turned strident as the end of the previous contract approached with the New Year. Mediacom filed a complaint against Sinclair with the FCC, claiming the broadcaster was not negotiating in good faith. Mediacom has agreed to drop the complaint.
The stand-off ensued over how much Mediacom would pay Sinclair for carrying the stations, typically so much per subscriber per month. Financial details of the deal were not released, though Marci Ryvicker of Wells Fargo said "we believe that Mediacomm is likely paying above 50 cents per sub per month." Sinclair and Mediacom clashed over retransmission fees two years ago, when Sinclair pulled its stations from Mediacom systems for about five weeks. They were restored two days before the Super Bowl.
The most recent dispute coincided with another battle between Time Warner Cable and Fox, both of which buried the hatchet on New Year’s Day for an undisclosed sum.
