Cable One and KPHO-TV in Phoenix Tuesday reached a tentative retransmission consent agreement, averting the station being dropped on New Year’s Eve.
“We have a deal,” Cable One spokeswoman Melany Stroupe said, while declining to comment on the terms of the agreement.
The Meredith Broadcasting Group CBS affiliate has submitted a new offer to Cable One Monday, and the cable operator came back with its response Tuesday, with both sides agreeing to concessions, according to KPHO general manager Ed Munson.
“I just got a call maybe 10 minutes ago from them,” Munson said. “We still have to vet out the particulars of the contract, but I would say that this one is not going to the point where they pull our signal off."
The station had warned that it would pull its signal if a new deal wasn’t reached by Dec. 31, when KPHO’s old retransmission-consent deal with Cable One expires.
A contract still had to be signed to paper the deal, but both sides were optimistic.
“This one it would appear will be worked out, but again it could fall apart in the lawyers vetting the contract, which is what’s happening right now,” Munsons said. “[But] I’m pretty optimistic on this one.”
In another close of a retrans deal, Gray Television’s WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kan., completed new agreements about a dozen local cable systems, general manager Jim Ogle said Tuesday.
WIBW had threatened to pull its signal Dec. 31 if new contracts weren’t reached.
Also at press time, Raycom Media's CBS affiliate WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge, La., told viewers on its Web site that Cox Communications had "plans to remove" it midnight Dec. 31. Cox couldn't be reached for comment.
