Fox Reaches Carriage Agreement With NCTC

Fox reached a new carriage agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative, averting a New Year’s blackout.

The NCTC represents more than 700 small and rural cable operators covering about 3 million subscribers.

The deal covers the Fox owned broadcast stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, FS1, FS2, Fox Deportes and Fox Soccer Plus.

The agreement was reached Tuesday night before the previous deal expired. Final signatures were put on the deal Wednesday.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the NCTC that avoided any disruption to our viewers," Fox said in a statement. "All of the NCTC’s members will continue to carry our portfolio of leading sports, entertainment and news programming for years to come.”

As the pact was set to expire, NCTC said Fox has been seeking “outrageous” price hikes aimed at taking advantage of its members' largely rural customers. It said the increase Fox was seeking was about 10 times the current rate of inflation and that Fox was negotiating in bad faith by trying to negotiate directly with its members.

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.