Despite a touchy few hours leading up to its midnight Central Time
deadline, Suddenlink Communications and News Corp.'s Fox Networks
managed to hammer out an agreement in principle covering the
programmer's television stations and its full suite of cable networks
with time to spare.
"Fox Networks (FN) and Suddenlink have reached an agreement in
principle on a global broadcast and cable carriage agreement that
includes retransmission consent for Fox owned and operated television
stations, plus our full portfolio of networks including: FX, National
Geographic Channel, Nat Geo Wild, Speed, Fuel TV, Fox Soccer, Fox Movie
Channel, Fox Deportes, Fox College Sports and many Fox regional sports
networks," Fox said in a statement issued about an hour before its
existing carriage deal with Suddenlink was set to expire. "We look
forward to finalizing the agreement and are pleased that we could come
to terms without any service interruption for Suddenlink customers and
our loyal Fox viewers. "
Earlier in the evening Suddenlink had issued a proposal that included an option to take the Fox cable networks ala carte. It appears that option was not necessary.
"Suddenlink has reached an agreement in principle with News Corp/Fox
for the continued carriage of its TV stations and cable networks,"
Suddenlink said in a statement. "The current agreement between the
companies has been extended for another week while they work out the
details of the new agreement. Specific terms of the new agreement were
not disclosed."
